We Published Our Algorithm. Here’s Why.
Komyūn exists because we believe bringing people together is the most critical work of our generation.
We can’t solve any other intractable problem (climate change, extreme poverty, the K economy, war, etc.) we are facing if we can’t come together.
Why We Started with an Open Algorithm
Bringing people together requires trust, and the three pillars of trust are transparency, accountability, and a shared view of reality.
We are building Komyun to earn your trust. Your social life is deeply personal, and we want to earn the right to hold every baby photo, every ask for support, every moment of grief, every raised glass, every shared meal. Nurturing these shared experiences in a trusted space is how we build the collective muscle to come back together, to remember our shared humanity and purpose.
Step one is building trust through transparency. We published our algorithm this week as the first pillar in earning your trust.
And, you’re not alone. Governments and regulators around the world have spent the last several years trying to pry open the black boxes that run social media — and they’ve had to fight for every inch.
In Europe, the Digital Services Act became fully enforceable in February 2024, requiring major platforms to explain how their recommender systems (algorithms) work, offer users the ability to opt out of personalized feeds, and submit to third-party audits. In December 2025, the EU issued its first fine under the DSA — €120 million against X (formerly Twitter) — for breaching transparency rules on its verification system, its advertising repository, and researcher data access.
The UK’s Online Safety Act came into force in 2025, creating a legal duty of care for platforms to assess and manage content risks — with fines up to 10% of global revenue for non-compliance. Australia went further: in December 2025, it became the first country in the world to ban social media accounts for users under 16, with penalties of up to AU$50 million for platforms that fail to comply.
The message from governments, researchers, and users is the same everywhere: we’re done being manipulated, and we don’t trust what we can’t see.
What We Refused to Build
Building Komyūn’s feed required a series of deliberate refusals. Not features we couldn’t build — features we chose not to. Each one was a decision about what kind of platform we wanted to be, and what kind of world we were trying to build.
We refuse to rank by engagement.
Engagement-based algorithms are the root cause of social media’s most serious harms — and we believe they are a significant driver of the polarization fracturing our society. When a feed rewards content that generates the strongest reactions, it systematically amplifies outrage, fear, and division. Not because anyone intended that outcome, but because anger drives clicks, clicks drive ad revenue, and the algorithm learns. The impact of this goes beyond just a bad user experience. It has created a world where we no longer share a common reality. Where the same event looks entirely different depending on how your algorithm decided to show it to you. You can’t heal a divided society when the infrastructure of public life is engineered to keep it divided. We can’t negotiate peace, if we don’t speak a common language.
Komyūn’s aim is to rebuild that common language. To do that we have built an algorithm that is chronological. So, there is no incentive for content creators to dramatize, falsify, or alter a story to increase its visibility. Every post shows up in your feed by when it was written — not by how many people reacted to it, not by what we predict you’ll engage with, not by what keeps you on the platform longest. A thoughtful post from a three-person community sits alongside everything else, judged only by the timestamp. Quieter voices aren’t buried. Inflammatory ones aren’t boosted. Your feed is a literal timeline of your people’s updates.
We refuse to track you.
We’re not selling ads, so we have no need for your engagement data. We don’t know what you click. We don’t know what you scroll past or how long you linger on a post. The Komyūn algorithm has no concept of engagement — not because we couldn’t build it, but because the moment you start measuring engagement, you start optimizing for it. And optimizing for engagement is how you end up with a feed full of content designed to scare and enrage you. The only filtering in our feed is safety: posts from people you’ve blocked and unsafe content are filtered out. That’s it.
We refuse to hide.
Most platforms treat their feed algorithm as a trade secret. You have no way to know why you’re seeing what you’re seeing, what’s being hidden from you, or whether the rules changed last week. It’s a game you have to figure out and manipulate. A blindfolded pin the tail on the donkey in which the donkey gets moved every few months.
We’re a team of gamers, but we don’t think personal relationships should be gamed. So, we published our algorithm. The code is imported directly so it can never go stale. If we change how the feed works, you’ll see it there first. An open algorithm means our community can hold us accountable. That accountability is the point: you are our purpose, not our product.
Follow the Money
Platforms that hide their algorithms can quietly change them…and they do. Frequently. They can shift ranking weights. They deprioritize content that’s unflattering to their advertisers. They promote content that keeps you up at night so you keep scrolling and view more ads. And they do it under a cloak of darkness so when users, creators, and small businesses wake up in the morning the game has changed and revenues are up. And even with increased pressure to do so they literally can’t change, because ad revenue is their whole business model.
Komyūn only generates revenue when communities thrive — through memberships, events, and social commerce. We have zero incentive to keep you scrolling, because we don’t sell your attention. We have zero incentive to hide or promote certain creators or content, because none of them are paying to be seen. That alignment isn’t a feature. It’s our whole business model. And it’s why the choices we made about the algorithm aren’t just philosophical — they’re structural. The business only works if the platform brings ease, support and productivity to your social life, and that will never change because it is foundationally who we are.
First Do No Harm
Your social life is one of the most personal things you build. The communities you choose, the people you stay close to, the spaces where you show up for each other — these are active extensions of who you are as a person. The relationships you invest in and rely on deeply as you move through this life. We built Komyun on the core belief that the digital infrastructure powering your life should earn every ounce of trust you give it through transparency, accountability, and by removing friction from connecting – not adding it.
Imagine if you showed up in your doctor’s office with a cough and they sent you immediately in for surgery. No explanation. No choices. Just a decision made by a process you weren't allowed to see or participate in. That would be a horrific violation – clearly designed to benefit the system, not you. In medicine, the whole concept of informed consent exists because when something this consequential touches your life, opacity isn't neutral — it's a form of harm.
The algorithm shaping your social life is at least as consequential. It determines what you see, what you believe about the world and about your neighbors, whose voice matters and who gets silenced. It should be held to the same standard.
That's the platform we're building. One where the digital infrastructure supporting human connection actually serves the humans using it. And the real beauty in this approach is that once you remove the need to create friction through opaque algorithms, you can build for user ease and delight.
Our vision is a radically simple one: That you open Komyun, celebrate a friend’s win, sign-up for next week’s carpool, share a book with your college roommate, buy something from your favorite small business in minutes, and get back to your day. This is what our algorithm is built for, and why we’ll share it with you, always. It’s your life.
You’ll find the Komyūn algorithm published in full at app.komyun.co/about or inside the app under About → FAQ → “How the Feed Works.” The running source code is included.
If you’re not yet on Komyūn you can join from your browser, or download the app (Apple / Android).
