A new social media platform, UpScrolled, is rapidly gaining global attention, challenging established tech giants such as TikTok, Instagram and X.
Created by Palestinian technologist Issam Hijazi, the app has climbed to become the most downloaded social media application on Apple’s App Store in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, while ranking eighth in Pakistan.
UpScrolled was developed in the aftermath of Israel’s war on Gaza, amid growing concerns over reduced visibility of content related to the conflict across mainstream platforms. The app positions itself as operating without “shadowbans” or “censorship”.
Hijazi said the idea emerged after he noticed a sharp decline in online reach for posts documenting the war.
“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,” he said.
Feeling compelled to amplify Palestinian voices, Hijazi left his corporate job to build the platform.
Visually similar to Instagram, UpScrolled offers two main feeds: Following and Discover. According to the company’s website, the Following feed is presented chronologically, giving users direct control over content from creators they follow, while the Discover feed is ranked by popularity with time-based decay and a degree of randomness.
The platform says it does not promote any political or commercial agenda, and that moderation will be human-led, transparent and apolitical, limited to content that violates community guidelines or breaks the law.
Hijazi described UpScrolled as a return to the original purpose of social media — fostering genuine connection.
“I want UpScrolled to be everyone’s platform. Politics spurred its creation, but its success lies in the diversity of its community and content… Ambitious? Maybe. Revolutionary? No,” he said.
He added that the project is entirely self-built and self-financed, without backing from venture capital or major tech firms. Earlier this week, the app briefly went offline after a surge of new users overwhelmed its servers, with the team saying they are scaling infrastructure to meet demand.
UpScrolled’s rapid rise coincides with changes to TikTok’s US operations, now controlled by a majority American-owned venture that the Council on American-Islamic Relations has described as pro-Israel. The organisation praised UpScrolled for “protecting free speech” amid what it called TikTok’s recent “censorship spree”.
