Social media platform Sez Us launches in India

Sez Us, a new social media platform that counts lawyer and former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and California governor Gavin Newsom among its users has come to India following a launch in its home market, the United States. The platform is backed by investors such as general Wesley Clark and former US house minority leader Dick Gephardt and is available on Google Playstore and iOS.

Akshay Gupta, chief operating officer at Sez Us said the platform is algorithm free and is aimed at real users to promote healthy and civilised engagement.

“Anonymity on platforms has encouraged toxic behavior and addiction and a lot has been written about the dopamine effects of modern social media. So that's one of the things we are trying to solve with our reputation engine,” said Gupta in an interview with ET. “The second is digital self-sovereignty. What that means is the content you create on social media is rightfully yours. That's a key principle that distinguishes us from the rest. When you come on our platform you own your material. You're not packaged. You're not sold for profit,” he added.


Sez Us said it has developed a blockchain-powered single sign-on experience in an effort to empower users with full ownership of their digital identity which is built in partnership with Project Liberty and the Frequency Network Foundation. The company said by mandating a verifiable mobile phone number for registration, it strives for a 'bot-free' environment.

“Users are given reputation scores basis their nature of engagement. Our reputation engine, which is now fully operational, allows users to moderate and influence discourse by rating posts, encouraging meaningful, curated engagement and discouraging disruptive bursts of disrespectful behaviour,” said Gupta.

“This is a very young platform. The platform has just come out of the alpha and beta stage in the US, and is being fully rolled out in the US as well as India,” he added.

Gupta also said that India presents a tremendous opportunity for the platform in terms of focusing on real users and their reputation. The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report identified India as the leading country in the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation.

Sez Us is currently running internships with Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai and has plans to use a 'significant' part of its growth capital to build groups and communities across India where clusters of interest groups – such as sports, entertainment, politics and general interest – will attract content creators and users specific to the Indian market.

"As we start to expand, we will put more resources in India as well as the US and other markets. I believe India is a critical market. We have a young population and a really rich creator environment. Seeing them thrive and empowering them is a key piece for us here," said Gupta.