AMMAN — When Issam Hijazi launched UpScrolled in the summer of 2025, he wasn't trying to build the next Instagram or TikTok. In fact, he never dreamed of creating a social media platform at all.

 

"I saw people being shadow-banned, censored and unable to reach their audiences," Hijazi told The Jordan Times. "I felt there had to be another way."

 

A Jordanian-Palestinian tech entrepreneur based in the Netherlands, Hijazi spent more than a decade working in the technology industry, including positions at IBM, Oracle and Hitachi. Before becoming the founder of UpScrolled, he had built a career developing enterprise technologies and data solutions for multinational companies. But the genocide in Gaza became a turning point in how he viewed the industry's role in shaping public discourse.

 

"There have always been incidents where Palestinian voices were suppressed," he says. "October 7 made many more people notice something that Palestinians had been experiencing for years."

 

Questions over content moderation during the war have fueled an intense debate among researchers, digital rights organizations and technology companies. Groups including Human Rights Watch and Access Now have documented cases in which Palestinian-related content was removed, restricted or experienced reduced visibility on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, while Meta has repeatedly said it enforces its policies globally and acknowledges that moderation mistakes can occur during rapidly evolving conflicts.

 

Hijazi argued those concerns created an opportunity for a different kind of platform.

 

Just over a year after its launch, UpScrolled has attracted millions of users, a growth that accelerated dramatically in early 2026 as uncertainty surrounding TikTok's operations in the United States prompted many users to explore alternatives.

 

"I thought we would see some movement," Hijazi recalls. "I never expected 2.5 million users within a week."

 

For a company that, only months earlier, consisted almost entirely of Hijazi himself, the sudden expansion forced rapid changes. Today, UpScrolled has grown into a team of around 25 people working across different countries, including staff dedicated to engineering, moderation and user support.

 

At first glance, the platform resembles many existing social media apps. Users can publish videos and photographs, follow creators, comment on posts and build communities. But Hijazi insisted the company's philosophy, not its interface, is what distinguishes it.

 

"We wanted to provide a familiar experience," he says. "But the difference is in the principles behind the platform."

 

Unlike mainstream social media companies, UpScrolled does not currently rely on recommendation algorithms to determine what users see in their feeds.

 

Hijazi argued that algorithmic systems can amplify some voices while invisibilizing others, although he acknowledges that algorithm-free feeds also come with challenges in helping users discover new content.

 

"Other platforms want to maximise your screen time," he says. "We want users to come, find what they're looking for, interact with the people they want to follow, and then log off."

 

Although UpScrolled has become closely associated with pro-Palestinian communities online, Hijazi rejected the idea that it is a political platform.

 

"We're not here to promote an agenda," he says. "We're here to provide a space where everyone can express themselves without fearing selective censorship."

 

Still, that positioning has brought scrutiny.

 

Watchdog organisations have reported instances of antisemitic content appearing on the platform, including Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories. Hijazi says UpScrolled's community guidelines prohibit hate speech, incitement to violence, scams and other forms of abusive content, and that the company has expanded its moderation capacity significantly since its rapid growth.

 

"When we suddenly had millions of users, we had to build those systems much faster," he says. "We action content that violates our community guidelines."

 

For Hijazi, however, the broader debate goes beyond any single platform. He believes social media has become one of the primary battlegrounds over who gets to tell the story of Palestine.

 

He pointed to earlier moments, including the 2021 protests in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, as examples where, in his view, Palestinian content faced disproportionate restrictions online.

 

Whether those perceptions are the result of moderation errors, automated systems or deliberate policy decisions remains contested. What is less disputed is that trust in major platforms has eroded among many users, creating space for smaller, values-driven alternatives.

 

Whether UpScrolled can maintain its rapid momentum remains an open question. Building a global social media platform requires not only technological infrastructure but also sustainable financing, effective moderation and the ability to balance free expression with user safety—challenges that have tested even the world's largest technology companies.

 

Hijazi acknowledged the scale of that task but says the company's mission has remained unchanged since its first day online.

 

"If people are coming to UpScrolled," he concludes, "it's because they're looking for a platform they can trust."