15 October 2026
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On the Smashi Business Show, Issam Hijazi explains the principles behind UpScrolled, from its internal “North Star” to the investors he’s willing to turn away.
For Issam Hijazi, building an ethical social platform does not mean building a charity.
UpScrolled still needs to grow, raise money, hire people, and ultimately become profitable. The difference, he says, is in what the company is willing to trade to get there.
“Being ethical doesn’t mean you’re not going to be profitable,” Hijazi told The Smashi Business Show. “It just means you need to think in ways that align with the values and the mission that we have set up front.”
That starts with how the company thinks about product decisions.
Hijazi describes an internal framework called the North Star. Every feature has to pass through it before it reaches users. The basic test is whether the feature serves people without compromising their wellbeing, manipulating their behaviour, or pulling the company away from its commitment to equal treatment.
That is why UpScrolled chose a chronological feed rather than a black-box recommendation system.
“The first thing I wanted to bring back to users is control and trust,” Hijazi said. “Control and trust only can happen if you can choose what you want.”
The same principle applies to funding.
Hijazi says UpScrolled is highly selective about the investors it accepts because the people on a company’s cap table can eventually influence what that company becomes.
“It’s not easy in the business world to say no to money, especially when you need it the most,” he said.
The interview also traces just how quickly UpScrolled had to grow up. Hijazi describes running the company almost entirely alone when it had roughly 150,000 users, before an unexpected surge sent millions more towards the platform. Suddenly, infrastructure, moderation, engineering, and support had to scale all at once.
Today, he says, UpScrolled has a staff of about 25 people, including staff working across engineering, trust and safety, moderation, legal, support, branding, and human rights.
But growth has not changed the basic question behind the product.
Does a feature benefit the person using it, or does it benefit the platform at that person’s expense?
For Hijazi, that is the line UpScrolled intends to keep drawing.
Issam Hijazi joined Ward Badawi and the Smashi Business Show for a conversation about Palestine, censorship, Big Tech, and building UpScrolled. The episode was published on 11 September 2026.
Watch the full interview here.
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About UpScrolled
UpScrolled puts people back in control of their social media experience. Founded by Issam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian technologist, it was built on a simple principle: social media should serve people, not exploit them. No shadowbanning. No data sales. Share freely, connect safely, trust your feed. Fairness and freedom in a digital landscape that has lost its way.
Media contact
Leila Dastyar | PR Director | leila@dna.online
