Suspensions, banned accounts, and closures, and the overall restriction of free speech have become commonplace on social media these days.
A new company, OurBabble, Inc., (https://ourbabble.com/ ), is looking to change that with the launch of its innovative social media platform that will enable users more control over their social media content and experience while offering small businesses affordable advertising options.
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Inspired by a former Army veteran's and entrepreneur's frustration with corporate social media platforms, OurBabble's site provides consumers the ability to manage the type of speech/posts they see, eliminating the need for deleting, blocking, or unfollowing family and friends. Instead, they can block certain types of speech. The site also allows users to decide on advertising with options for partial or no ads on their platform.
Think of it as your content and your babble...your way.
"It is beyond time for people to take back their social media and stop allowing the companies to control the narrative," said Joseph Caudle, CEO of OurBabble. "We are giving our users back their inalienable rights to form and communicate their thoughts and opinions without interference. That is our social media philosophy. We get rid of the control, allowing users to decide what they see. Users can engage on their own terms -- free of algorithms, tracking, censorship, or fact-checking. No more being told your opinion or thought is missing 'context' because it didn't fit with what a large tech company wanted to force upon you."
In another unique feature of OurBabble, the site will offer a special area inside the platform to allow its members to view public posts across the U.S. and globally. This is designed to give users more comprehensive access to a wider range of information and opinions on timely issues and topics.
"On most social media sites, pretty much all the large companies, there is no way to see a post from an individual that you are not friends with or following. This is another way they control the narrative," Caudle explained. "You can go 'search' a person, if you know their name and see their posts, but that is daunting with more than 300 million people in the U.S. alone. You will now have the ability to go see what everyone is saying, specifically on different issues. We are putting the decision-making power back in the hand of the public. No longer will you be told or driven to think a certain way. You now can get back to real life and make up your own mind on topics by weighing differing points of view."
OurBabble also seeks to give small businesses a break with exclusive access to affordable advertising on its platform.
"As a small business owner of a travel agency, I know how expensive it is to advertise, and most advertising out there, is geared typically toward a small geographical area and leads to minor returns compared to those that can advertise to larger areas," Caudle said. "We are going to fix that. Call it a 'small business revolution' if you will. We are designing unbelievably affordable pricing for small businesses that is a set monthly amount so they can more easily budget for advertising. Additionally, we are making our platform only available to small business advertisers so they won't have to compete against larger corporate competitors."
Top features and benefits of the OurBabble social media platform include:
- Users control their social media experience.
- Engage on your own terms.
- Only small businesses are allowed to advertise.
- Ability to see everyone posting, not just who you are allowed to see.
- No tracking, no spying, no algorithms, and no corporate censorship.
- Control the speech rather than deleting your family or friends.
- Encourages and promotes a diversity of opinions and views.
After facing a four-day ban on a social media platform, Caudle was driven to create his concept for OurBabble.
"I wanted a platform free of manipulation, tracking, and intrusion on my life. When I was banned for basically stating my opinion and thoughts, I told myself...There has to be a better way," Caudle recalled. "As an Army veteran and small business owner, I have always been the type of person that goes by a basic philosophy...'If it's broke, fix it'. So instead of getting mad about it, I focused my energy on developing OurBabble. I started jotting down notes on what I thought social media was about, and what I would prefer to be able to do if I controlled my own social media without censorship, algorithms, tracking, and snooping. I designed the platform and the overall design on a PowerPoint file. My military background brings me the discipline to get things done, and to look adversity in the face and overcome it."
Caudle said he is not concerned about possible abuse of the OurBabble platform from bots and malicious users, and he added that the response to the site so far has been supportive from the public and potential investors.
"Honestly, I can't think of a single negative comment about the platform itself. I do have some ask how we will control things like bots that are created by those trying to cause harm and other ToS violations. Employees will have an active role in monitoring the platform for ToS violations, but we will rely on the community to help keep the platform a safe and fun place to use for social media," Caudle said. "If you see something, say something...is our motto. Everything is reportable, including posts, comments, photos. This will help keep away those that are looking to do harm. For those that violate our platform's ToS, these issues will be handled case by case. We do reserve the right to put in place any AI that may be deemed necessary to keep the community safe. For future changes, builds or add-ons, we will be taking community polls to see if they should be implemented. Most of these ideas will come from the 'Suggestion Box' on the platform."
The global economic shutdown in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak accelerated work on OurBabble when the travel company Caudle owns with his wife Regina Caudle was deeply impacted.
"Covid devastated our travel agency. We were set to increase business in 2020 by five-fold, and then ended up canceling 95% of what we had booked for the year," Caudle said. "As for OurBabble, it hasn't affected the platform's development, but it did give me motivation."
He also credited Regina, the social media platform's COO, and his younger sister, CMO Desiree Sullivan, with providing key contributions to the company's development.
Caudle envisions ambitious growth for OurBabble, including a five-year platform goal reaching more than 100 million global users and 15,000 small business advertisers.
"In the words of one developer, we have possibly created an industry-changing platform," he said. "And I believe he is correct. The excitement seen through polling has been second to none. People are ready to sign up even before we are done speaking. Also, using the numbers that I have been researching heavily, we could be looking at a multi-billion-dollar company in two to five years. That will depend on how fast or slow we gain users and advertisers."
