Earlier this year, when U.S. President Donald Trump was making a lot of noise about Canada becoming the 51st state, Ben Waldman was engrossed in his own sovereign exercise: launching a Canadian-built social media platform.
A digital product lead based in Ottawa, Waldman embarked on this project with a clear set of parameters. He wanted to create something that operated within the country鈥檚 borders, employed its citizens and used its Charter of Rights and Freedoms as its north star. Cue , which is set to release its public beta by the end of this year.
Here, Waldman weighs in on countering misinformation, protecting democracy and seizing the moment to launch ethical homegrown initiatives.
Tell me about the name.
This past March, I was working on a project for which I鈥檇 designed a logo that had a goose in it. The U.S. election had just happened, our own federal elections were looming, and the madness of social media was really getting to me. There was disinformation and misinformation everywhere, and I was finding myself arguing with bots. I wanted another option. Looking at the logo, the phrase 鈥淲hat鈥檚 good for the goose is good for the gander鈥 came out of my mouth. One of our national symbols is the Canada goose. And I鈥檇 just seen “Come From Away,” which is set in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Things have moved quickly for you since then.
My driving thought was, Social media has to change. Bluesky is open source, so I had proof of concept within a few days. Nothing releasable, but enough to say that if I could get a team together, this could be a real thing. I launched the website to test the waters and see if anybody cared. We had roughly 6,000 people sign up in the first week or so for our early access program. About two weeks in, we had our first adviser: Blaine Cook, Twitter鈥檚 founding engineer. By the following week, Taylor Owen was on board. Then, late one night, I got a text from Arlene Dickinson asking if I was the guy who was starting a social media platform. We鈥檝e had a lot of buzz, but in terms of funding, we鈥檙e still figuring stuff out. I鈥檓 not a millionaire. For now, we鈥檙e self-funded and have help from friends and family. We鈥檝e incorporated as a public benefit company in B.C., which means we鈥檙e a for-profit but we鈥檙e tied to a mission. We鈥檙e talking to government officials and applying to various government programs and looking at ways we can involve Canadians and see how they want this funded.
How did your own relationship to social media lead to Gander?
Around the time of the 鈥51st state鈥 comments, there was a lot of talk online about what would happen if the U.S. attacked us. I got involved in conversations around our sovereign tech and how almost everything that鈥檚 run on our computers and phones is American. Not only that 鈥 the cloud hosting is subject to the U.S. Cloud Act and to the Patriot Act. There are certain legal controls between Canada and the U.S. regarding how people can be subpoenaed and data can be extracted and all that, but that only works when there鈥檚 a president who follows the rules. All it would take is an executive order to shut down Amazon, Google and Microsoft in Canada. Overnight, we鈥檇 be shut out. That was the first thing that led to Gander. The second was my involvement in the unity rallies that took place in cities across the country.
The Elbows Up movement ...
Yes. I supported them by offering the logo and by running the social media channels in Ottawa. The day went spectacularly. It was the most wholesome, non-partisan Canadian thing I had ever participated in. When I got back home, I decided to look at the comments. Everything was politicized. The trolls had landed, and they were posting repeatedly on every single post with the same comments. Things like, 鈥淲here were you when the truckers needed you?鈥 and 鈥淭his is a liberal ploy.鈥澛
Many of the existing platforms 鈥 X, Facebook 鈥 have descended into chaos by fomenting misinformation, disinformation, violent rhetoric. How will Gander avoid that?
We鈥檙e going to moderate the platform under the Charter. We鈥檙e using Bluesky鈥檚 approach, which includes community moderation. It鈥檚 moderated by organizations that monitor and label content for hate, or monitor and label for racism, and you subscribe to these labellers. We鈥檙e operating on a parallel network 鈥 it鈥檚 the sovereign Canadian version. Not everything鈥檚 going to get caught, but it鈥檚 a far sight better than what you might see on other platforms. You choose the labels you want to accept or not, but they need to fall within Canadian law. We鈥檒l also have tools that address credibility and fact-checking.
Who will be your typical user?
If you want to comment or get involved in chats, you have to verify. We have to know you鈥檙e a human who is of age. There鈥檚 plenty of research to show that social media is hugely detrimental to kids鈥 mental health. And I don鈥檛 want to be kept up at night worrying that there鈥檚 grooming happening on our platform. So we鈥檙e doing everything we can to make sure we鈥檙e dealing with human adults, which also greatly reduces bad bots 鈥 bad actors, foreign actors, that come in and manipulate communities through disinformation.
Picking and choosing who gets to be a part of your community means you鈥檒l likely face accusations of gatekeeping or censorship. How will you respond?
Ultimately, I鈥檇 say that you don鈥檛 have to sign up with Gander. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 unreasonable that if you can鈥檛 be verified as human, you can鈥檛 post. We want people to engage in a sane and healthy way, so that differing opinions can actually be cross-referenced and people start to feel more comfortable on social media. One of the problems right now is that people are scared to post or comment because they鈥檙e going to get torn apart. We鈥檙e hoping to change some of that. The possible flaw in our plan is that people really seem to love hate 鈥 they love a dopamine roller-coaster.
Maybe you can be joy baiters instead of hate baiters.
We have talked about specifically seeking out 鈥渉ope core creators鈥 to give people that dose when they want it. We鈥檙e really focused on bringing 鈥渟ocial鈥 back to social media. That includes functionality that makes people feel comfortable to post and comment. We also want to make it so you can actually focus on content from things and people you care about through a 鈥渇or you鈥 page designed by you 鈥 not the platform.
One of your tag lines is 鈥淪tanding on Guard for Thee (and thy data).鈥 Let鈥檚 dig into the Canadian-ness of your approach.
Everyone on our team is either Canadian or working on their way to citizenship. In many ways, it would be easier and quicker and more inexpensive if we outsourced the work. But I鈥檓 not in any rush. This is about democracy and people鈥檚 safety; it鈥檚 not about growing and exploding a platform as fast and as cheaply as possible.
How central is digital sovereignty to your mission?
One of the primary goals is to make it difficult or impossible for a foreign body to shut us down. We need the ability to have our own controls in place 鈥 because identifying Indigenous hate in the U.S. may not look the same as labelling similar content in Canada, for example. Our Charter is not the same as someone else鈥檚 charter or constitution.
Do you see Gander as a tech company, a social movement or something else?
It鈥檚 definitely not a tech company, because we鈥檙e building Gander on proven tech, not from scratch. This is a project about policy (trust and safety in a Canadian context) and marketing (I鈥檓 not in a rush to have rapid growth). The only caveat is: the faster we can get more Canadians on the platform, the safer we will all be when it comes to our democracy and our mental health.
You鈥檙e early in your founder journey with Gander, but do you have any advice for other Canadians who are looking to build products that reflect their values 鈥斅燼nd those of their country?
I wake up thinking about how there are no Canadian word-processing platforms! There鈥檚 so much opportunity right now to do something good, valuable, ethical. There鈥檚 a hunger for it. The government needs and wants this stuff. Businesses need and want this stuff. More and more we鈥檙e going to see sovereignty as a service. Open-source technology for your office that is completely sovereign, for example. There are a ton of opportunities 鈥 founders just have to grab them.
So, what you鈥檙e saying is that the moment to strike is now because of patriotism, a desire to work within the country鈥檚 borders and money and interest from Canadians 鈥 various levels of government included.
There鈥檚 no way we could have launched Gander eight months ago. It wouldn鈥檛 have been a thing.聽
To hear more from Ben Waldman about the importance of digital sovereignty, check out his on Thursday, Oct. 9 at the in Toronto.
St茅phanie Verge writes about technology for . Torstar, the parent company of the 海角社区官网Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies.
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