How PeopleOnly Works
The platform for real, verified people. No bots. No algorithms. No outrage loops.
Every contributor is a verified person
On most social platforms, you have no way of knowing whether the account you're reading is a real person, a bot, an astroturf operation, or a teenager pretending to be a geopolitical analyst. PeopleOnly solves this by requiring full identity verification before anyone can publish.
Verification is handled by Didit, an independent KYC provider. Your identity documents never touch PeopleOnly's servers — Didit holds them. We receive only a cryptographic token confirming you are a real, living human being. Verification cannot be bought, tiered, or fast-tracked. Everyone goes through the same process.
This is the foundation everything else is built on. A reaction from a verified person carries weight precisely because that person is accountable for it. An article published under a verified identity cannot later be disowned.
Real words with real consequences
PeopleOnly is built around one uncomfortable truth that most platforms avoid: if you are a real person saying something to a real audience, you are responsible for what you say.
Defamatory content can be challenged in court. PeopleOnly cooperates fully with valid court orders from recognised democratic jurisdictions. If a court orders us to disclose who published something, we will — and every such disclosure is logged publicly and permanently on our immutable disclosure ledger. There is no silent surveillance. No secret demands. Every disclosure is on record.
This is not censorship. We take no editorial positions, and we do not remove content because it is unpopular, uncomfortable, or politically inconvenient. We cooperate only with valid legal orders. Anonymity is not a shield here — but neither is power.
No algorithmic manipulation
PeopleOnly does not manipulate your feed. There is no black-box algorithm deciding what you should see in order to maximise your time on the platform. Your feed is determined by who you follow and the sort order you choose — nothing else.
Advertising on PeopleOnly is targeted by content topic, never by individual user behaviour. We do not build psychological profiles. We do not sell your personal data to third parties. Posts cannot be paid to reach more people. Organic reach stays honest.
This extends to editorial independence: advertiser spend never influences content ranking, visibility, or editorial coverage. No advertiser can pay to have anything promoted or suppressed. When an advertiser account is also a Verified Journalist or Verified Institution on PeopleOnly, that's disclosed directly wherever the advertiser is shown — see our editorial independence policy and the public Institutional Advertiser Disclosures record.
Why Trending on PeopleOnly is different
Trending on Twitter, Facebook and TikTok measures engagement velocity — how fast something spreads, how many reactions it gets, how much time it keeps people on the platform. Platforms are incentivised to surface content that provokes — because outrage keeps you scrolling.
Trending on PeopleOnly measures something entirely different: the quality ratio of verified human reactions. Every person who reacted is a real, verified human being. Trending asks — of everyone who reacted, what proportion found this credible or significant? A story verified by 80% of its readers outranks a story that went viral but 90% found unverified or one-sided.
It is an imperfect but honest attempt to answer a question no other platform asks: what do real, accountable humans actually consider worth knowing?
The minimum threshold is 5 reactions from verified people. Below that, there is not enough signal to rank meaningfully. Above it, quality ratio determines order — not volume, not velocity, not who paid for promotion.
The reaction system
PeopleOnly uses five reactions, arranged as two mutually exclusive pairs plus one standalone:
- Credible and Questionable — your assessment of the factual basis. You can only pick one.
- Balanced and One-sided — your assessment of the framing. You can only pick one.
- Significant — this matters, regardless of whether you agree with it.
Unverified reactions are shown alongside verified ones, not hidden. If a large portion of verified readers find something unverified or one-sided, that is information. We do not suppress reactions because they are unflattering to the author.
Logged-out visitors can also react, but their reactions are tracked separately and clearly labelled. Verified reactions and unverified visitor reactions are never mixed without distinction.
Verified takes
Any verified user can write a take on any piece of content — a minimum-20-word commentary that becomes its own post, linked back to the original. Takes go through an AI quality check before publishing: not a content filter, but a coherence check to ensure the take engages meaningfully with the original rather than just restating it or saying “I agree.”
Takes appear in the Trending feed and can themselves be reacted to. One take per user per article. Choose your words with care — a take becomes a permanent part of your public record and can never be edited once posted, though you can remove your own take later.
Who publishes on PeopleOnly
PeopleOnly has two contributor tiers, worldwide, both fully identity-verified before they can publish a word:
- Verified Journalists — independent journalists and reporters, verified through KYC plus press credentials. Publish articles with beats, source transparency declarations, certainty levels, and depth indicators, and are eligible for ad revenue share and reader subscriptions.
- Verified Citizens — any member of the public, verified through KYC alone. Post perspectives, react, comment, follow, and write verified takes on other people's articles.
All profiles are verified. There is no unverified tier. There is no blue-tick-for-cash. The verified badge means one thing: this is a real person.
Ad revenue, and a bonus for local coverage
Verified Journalists are paid for their published work based on confirmed reads of their own articles — never on which advertisers happen to appear nearby, so a story that's important but uncomfortable for brand-safety filters never earns less because of it.
A pure reads-based split would systematically favour big-city coverage over equally valuable reporting from smaller, underserved places, purely because of population size — working against everything our Near Me and place-following features are built to surface. So content from areas with less existing coverage earns a modest bonus per confirmed read, capped at 1.5x, on top of the standard rate. This is a bonus, never a discount: saturated areas always earn the full baseline rate, exactly what they'd earn under a plain read-share model. Nothing is ever worth less because of where it's from.
Think of it like a universal service fund: broader activity across the platform helps fund coverage in places the market alone would underserve. More reads is still, obviously, more money — everywhere. Your current bonus, and this same explanation, is always visible on your dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Identity & verification
Do I need to give my real name to use PeopleOnly?
Only if you want to post, take, or comment. Reading is open to anyone with no account, and reacting only requires a free, email-verified account. Posting requires KYC (identity) verification through Didit, our third-party verification provider.
Is my real identity public?
No. Didit holds your real identity documents — PeopleOnly never stores them. PeopleOnly only stores a verified token confirming you passed identity verification, plus whatever display name and profile info you choose to show publicly.
Can PeopleOnly reveal who I really am?
Only in response to a valid court order from a recognized democratic jurisdiction — never on request, and never for a foreign or non-democratic legal order. PeopleOnly does not disclose identity voluntarily or proactively.
Reading
Can I read articles without an account?
Yes, but only the first two paragraphs of longer articles. To read the rest, either create a free email-verified account, or pass a quick one-time bot check on the article itself — that unlocks full reading for 24 hours with no account needed. Short posts render in full for everyone from the start.
Do I need an account to react to a post?
Yes — a free account with a verified email address. No identity verification is required to react, only to post.
Posting & the feed
Who can publish articles and posts?
Two account types: Verified Journalists (identity-verified plus a checked press credential) and Verified Citizens (identity-verified only). Both must complete KYC before publishing anything.
Is there an algorithm deciding what I see?
No. Your main feed is exactly who you follow, in the sort order you pick — there's no engagement optimization or promoted-post ranking. The separate Trending tab ranks content by the ratio of credible/significant reactions to total reactions, not by views, shares, or speed of spread — so outrage and virality don't get an advantage there either.
Can someone pay to make their post reach more people?
No. Posts can't be boosted for payment under any circumstance — that's a fixed platform rule, not a pricing tier.
How journalists get paid
Are journalists paid a share of advertising revenue?
Yes. Advertisers pay PeopleOnly a single, flat amount per campaign — no payment processor or advertiser ever splits or routes money to journalists directly. Separately, PeopleOnly calculates a share of that ad revenue internally, based on confirmed reads of a journalist's own articles, and pays it out by direct bank transfer — the same way a business pays a contractor or royalty, not through any payment processor.
Do journalists get paid based on which ads happen to run near their article?
No. Payment is based purely on confirmed reads of the journalist's own article — never on which advertiser's ad appeared next to it, and never disclosed to the advertiser as a line item.
Can readers pay journalists directly?
That's the intended model — journalists keep 100% of any reader subscription revenue, with no platform cut — but it isn't live yet. PeopleOnly doesn't have a payment provider connected right now, so subscription checkout currently shows “coming soon.” This will change once a provider is integrated.
Advertising
How does advertising work on PeopleOnly?
Advertisers fund a campaign through Platform Campaigns, PeopleOnly's live ad model. Ads are matched to content by topic and geography and shown as clearly labeled “Sponsored” placements — never inserted into or attributed to a specific journalist's own article. The advertiser is charged one flat total; there's no itemized breakdown shown to them of what PeopleOnly keeps versus what goes to journalists.
Can an advertiser negotiate directly with a specific journalist?
Not for new deals right now — that direct-deal option is temporarily closed to new proposals while Platform Campaigns is the live model. A small number of existing, already-approved direct partnerships are still running and are publicly disclosed on the journalists' own profile pages.
Trust & accountability
If someone posts something false or defamatory about me, what can I do?
You can pursue legal action against the person who posted it, the same as you could for defamation anywhere else — because their real identity is verified and tied to what they post. PeopleOnly isn't the publisher and isn't liable for what users post; its role is limited to verifying identity at signup.
Does PeopleOnly take editorial positions or moderate for viewpoint?
No. Reactions are never manipulated, and the platform doesn't favor or suppress content based on its position.