Q and A with Issam Hijazi

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Issam?

I’m a Palestinian Jordanian Australian, and spent most of my career in corporate IT. My life consists of work, spending time with family and friends and trying to stay as active as I can. Anyone who knows me knows I’m constantly running between meetings. I’m always trying to improve how I juggle everything. Like most people, I’m a work in progress but as long as I’ve achieved something today that I couldn’t yesterday, I’m moving forward.

What made you decide to leave your corporate job and start UpScrolled?

I never thought I would leave my job, or at least the corporate world. I was content and doing relatively well. Everything changed for me mid-2024. For eight months, I had been watching, like the rest of the world, the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Like so many people, I was getting my news from independent journalists and activists online and across social media platforms and I myself was sharing and reposting also. But as the months dragged on, every conceivable metric (death toll, time, destruction of buildings, number of hostages) skyrocketed and the only decreasing metric was online visibility. The truth was essentially being silenced or throttled. Watching my people being erased in the homeland and feeling the pressure to amplify their plight and effect change, I dared to build an alternative social media platform that preserves and promotes truth.

Mainstream platforms all offered connection and community when they started, how will UpScrolled prove to be different?

The primary difference is that UpScrolled is self-built and self-financed – no VC funding or big tech investors. I’ve put every waking hour and every last cent into this. Today our community is 90,000-strong, and growing every day. We’re different in how we operate: Chronological feeds mean your followers actually see your posts, transparent operations mean no hidden algorithms, and independent ownership means no pressure to monetise your attention. We’re a start-up - I fully acknowledge that there are things to improve, features to expand, and we get better and stronger every day. Nobody starts perfect. You work at it and give it everything you’ve got.

Who did you build UpScrolled for and isn’t it just another platform?

UpScrolled was built for everyone who is frustrated with their posts not being seen by their followers and for any users who aren’t seeing accounts they follow in their feed. It was born from an oppressed people’s cry for help, but I hope UpScrolled is the answer for anyone feeling unheard. I don’t believe it’s just another platform; it was purpose-built from a need for justice and truth. I want UpScrolled to be everyone’s platform. Politics spurred its creation, but its success lies in the diversity of its community and content. Whatever interests you, whoever you are, wherever you come from… your voice is welcome on UpScrolled and your people are here. Ambitious? Maybe. Revolutionary? No. Just trying to get back to the basic principles of social media… social connection.

How will you generate revenue if your algorithm model isn’t designed to boost paid content?

This is our biggest challenge and opportunity. Since we are self-built and privately owned, we are not beholden to any investor group. We fully appreciate that to survive at scale and sustain our founding premise of visibility and transparency, we need a revenue model that isn’t built on control and investor returns. We’re exploring tokenised ownership for creators, revenue-sharing structures, and governance rights. These are models that only creator-based platforms can implement, and I envision UpScrolled being collaborative in every sense of the word.

Is now a good time to be on UpScrolled?

Everyone needs to start somewhere. If making sure your followers see your posts is important to you, if you feel unheard, if you’re not seeing what matters to you - today is a good day to try UpScrolled. We’re just getting started, and we’re building this with our community. Join us.

Download UpScrolled:

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google