CoSocial.ca is a non-profit cooperative providing open social media for Canada.
Our purpose is to provide social media and online collaboration services to empower our members and the communities they are a part of. A place for connection and conversation, that people can call home and come together to build. We aim to be a stable and reliable coop on the values of inclusivity, diversity, respect, and kindness.
Open social media in Canada
A group of us started CoSocial in November 2022 after Elon Musk formally took over Twitter. Our first call to action is still up on our blog. After an initial call, we decided to work toward incorporation as a cooperative which we did on March 1, 2023. We officially announced ourselves as open for new members a few weeks later in April of the same year. Since then, we’ve welcomed more than 150 members and continue to grow the coop corner of the web in Canada.
The cooperative difference
We are a non-profit Community Service Cooperative. That means we are a democratic member-run organization with open membership.
Everyone who uses our services is a member of the cooperative with a say in how we are run. They can vote at member meetings, elect directors to the board, and join working groups. Our annual dues support the operation of our services.
Cooperatives are unique organisations that are jointly owned by members. Cooperatives go back as long as people have been cooperating for mutual benefit. More recently, the International Cooperative Alliance has brought together cooperatives. We are inspired by their statement of the seven cooperative principles:
- Voluntary and Open Membership
- Democratic Member Control
- Member Economic Participation
- Autonomy and Independence
- Education, Training, and Information
- Cooperation among Cooperatives
- Concern for Community
And the cooperative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.
Acknowledging where we work
CoSocial acknowledges that we operate from the unceded and unsurrendered territories of many Indigenous peoples—First Nations, Inuit, and Métis—in what is now known as Canada.
Our members live, work and play in the traditional lands of the Inuit in the North to the Mississaugas in the South. From Denendeh in the West to the lands of the Mi’kmaq in the East. We also acknowledge the Treaties and our responsibilities as Treaty people in those territories.
We recognize that land acknowledgements alone are not enough. As a cooperative looking to change the current state of social media, our work is long-term and based in solidarity. As a result we take seriously the calls to act for media and business in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 94 Calls to Action. We also commit as an organization to intentional relationship building, learning, and action in the spirit of cooperation to align with Indigenous-led reconciliation efforts and self-determination and sovereignty of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.
Our thanks to SSG Coop for their language acknowledging unceded territories across many traditional lands.