London-based SA entrepreneur Ludré Stevens takes on “broken” social media with bot-free platform Opino

A troubling trend for democracy and social discourse is the increasing manipulation of social media platforms like X, where AI-driven algorithms deepen ideological silos and limit engagement with opposing viewpoints. The anonymity of pseudonyms has further enabled nano influencers - often quietly funded - to shape narratives without disclosing their financial backers. In South Africa, recent revelations have exposed multiple political campaigns leveraging paid influencer networks to manufacture public sentiment online. In response, Ludré Stevens is launching Opino, a social media platform positioning itself as Europe’s independent, bot-free space. In an interview with BizNews Stevens described Opino - set to launch publicly on 1 June - as a platform with “absolutely no bots, complete transparency, where real people and real companies can interact.” The app will require influencers who receive payment to declare it, ensuring authenticity and preventing covert sponsorships. Stevens emphasised that while Opino shares similarities with platforms like Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky, its defining principles are “no bots, no AI, and no manufactured outrage - just back to basics.”Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.Linda van Tilburg (00:00.11)South African Ludré Stevens is one of the founders of Opino, a new social media platform that launched in early May. It positions itself as Europe's independent, bot-free social platform. And we have Ludré with us in the studio. Hi Ludré, thanks for joining us.Ludré Stevens (00:52.318) Thank you for having me.Linda van Tilburg (00:54.444) So, what inspired you to create a new social media platform?Ludré Stevens (00:59.789) I must tell you; there’s the real story and then there’s the PR story, but I’ll share the real story. I was watching TV in April, and I saw this big news flash about X being bought by xAI, Elon Musk’s company, and the next thing I see is the European Central Bank governor saying it’s time for Europe to build its own payments platform. Then Trump is lifting all these tariffs. I thought, my goodness. Now’s the time to launch a big tech social media company in Europe that gives us a balanced and independent voice. If there was ever a time to do it, it is now. People always say it’s time for Europe to establish its own platforms and companies. So, I thought, the confluence of factors suggests we should do it now.Linda van Tilburg (01:46.535) Okay, so it’s an invitation-only model. Why?Ludré Stevens (01:51.692) It’s invitation-only for now because, with all things, you have to make sure you kick the tyres to ensure it works. We’re actually doing a public launch on the 1st of June and opening to the public. For now, we’ve built a minimum viable product and invited the first 100 users to try it out - people who are influencers and well-known in the sector. We’re doing a lot of back-end fixing and updating for our big launch on the 1st of June. With things like this, you have to start small before you go big; otherwise, they break without fixing them upfront. So, we’re starting with an invitation-only model, and we have a waiting list building up right now for the public. But then, on June 1st, we’ll open the floodgates for everyone to join.Linda van Tilburg (02:35.222) Well, how do you prevent the pitfalls of X? You don’t have to say who you are; you can use a pseudonym, which means there’s a lot of bile spat out on X, and it’s one of the reasons why people move away from it. So how do you avoid that?Ludré Stevens (02:53.543) Exactly. We have a few principles that we are pursuing with this project. The first thing is absolutely no bot users. This platform is only for real users - real humans or companies. The first principle is absolutely no bots because bots create hype and lead you down rabbit holes you don’t need to be in. There’s also this big trend where these bots push people down political pathways that otherwise wouldn’t get visibility. So, the first thing is absolutely no bots. The second principle is complete transparency. We have built several news feeds, if you like. The main news feed is the Follow feed, which shows you all the posts, reposts, and likes from the people you follow, and there are no algorithms that force you away or determine what you see. What they say and what they post is what you see.Our second feed is Discover, where we show the posts of everyone else on Opino in a chronological fashion. This allows you to be exposed to and discover new opinions and thoughts that would otherwise be completely blocked from your view by algorithms, AIs, and bots that create manufactured outrage on other platforms.The third feed is called Trending because, obviously, it’s no fun going to social media and not seeing what’s exciting and popular. Trending shows the posts, topics, and keywords with the most likes and reposts. It’s not some algorithm that determines you like blue potatoes and therefore we’ll only show you blue potatoes; it’s literally what’s really trending in the world and what is popular - by humans, not by bots or AI algorithms.The idea here is to apply the basics and have a straightforward advertising business model - nothing fancy. We don’t sell your data, we don’t push you down certain routes, and you see certain ads. We keep it simple. This means we’re going back to the basics of social media, where real people, real companies, and real consumers interact with each other, and you actually see people’s real desires, needs, and trends. Ultimately, the fundamental starting point for us is no bots - only people.Linda van Tilburg (05:12.336) And what about advertisements? Are you looking for ethical advertisers? Ludré Stevens (05:17.003) So, the answer is yes, but obviously within the context of free speech, right? We believe in free speech, not hate speech. We've spent a lot of time on our free speech and content moderation module. People often say they are for free speech, but then they implement all these AI algorithms that funnel content. We are for free speech 100%, but no hate speech, and we are very clear about what we consider hate speech within UK and EU laws and regulations.We give people a warning, a strike, and then you're out on the back end of that. So, the answer to your question is that ethical considerations are important. Apps get into trouble because one person's ethics may not align with another's, as long as it’s within the bounds of free speech. There should be no harm to individuals, and no content that breaks regulations. The idea here is that advertisers will have a fair chance to be seen by everyone, and the people seeing your content are real users. Your views and likes come from high-value accounts, not a bunch of bots, so you won’t have to pay a fortune for views that are just generated by machines. Yes, it’s going to be a very basic advertising model, showing ads after a certain number of posts - nothing unusual about that.You’ll also see that we are publishing a newsfeed transparency explanation where we clarify how our followers feed works, how our discover feed operates, how our spending feed functions, and how we display ads. On day one, we won’t show people ads based on their interests, but they will be able to opt in the future if they want to see ads tailored to their interests. It will be transparent and under your control.Linda van Tilburg (06:59.37) Well, if you don’t allow hate speech, who’s going to moderate?Ludré Stevens (07:05.322) We are supportive of regulation and believe this sector should not be unregulated, as some of our counterparts suggest. This is clearly defined in UK and EU legislation, and we will follow those guidelines. We also choose to add a few additional items on top of that, and our policies are very clear on our website.We have a systematic way to identify content that may be at risk. If you think something is at risk of breaking our policy, we’ll give the user a warning, asking, “Are you sure you want to post this because it’s at risk?” If it does get posted and is flagged by our systems or reported, we have a human team that handles moderation. We only give three strikes, and on the third strike, you’re out. We do give people a chance; if we think something is a bit risky or breaks the law, we ask, “Are you sure you want to post this?”Of course, there will always be people taking risks. We have built-in systematic and human checks to eliminate, prevent, and stop that from going forward.Linda van Tilburg (08:10.781) So, if you don’t have the bots, do you have any AI involved in the process?Ludré Stevens (08:15.891) Let me clarify; we are not against AI; we love AI. I use AI every day for all my ventures, and I must say it’s been a game changer. In this context, AI is threefold. First, are there AI algorithms that channel and determine what you see? The answer is no. Are there AI-generated content? Yes, people use AI to write posts, generate photos, and create videos within IP parameters because people want to see those things. Those are fun and interesting, and I use AI for my own writing as well. Most AI content will be like that, but there will not be any bots. Bots are when a system or AI engine has an account and likes things or changes things around.One thing to mention is that one of the big pain points with traditional social media is the issue of nano-influencers - people who get paid per like or repost. You might have one account reposting a topic 40 times a day with different pictures. These are nano-influencers who don’t genuinely believe in a cause; they are just being paid small amounts of money to create manufactured outrage.We have also put together a policy to avoid these nano-influencers. The way we will combat that is by requiring anyone who gets paid to do something to declare it. Advertisers will be transparent, so people will know that the content they are seeing is being paid for. If you are an influencer or nano-influencer, you must declare that you are being compensated for product placement or reposting. This way, people will know if an account is a verified human doing this for someone else. We thought bots were the big enemy, but it turns out these nano-influencers are another challenge we need to manage.Linda van Tilburg (10:13.469) Seeing that both of us are South African, there is apparently an army of these nano-influencers in South Africa who are being paid.Ludré Stevens (10:22.184) Absolutely. You know, it’s obviously a global phenomenon. In South Africa, it has been noted recently, particularly with the VAT hike and the well-established article by the Daily Maverick on that. But all around the world, I mean, the Iranian election had to be rerun because of all these fake accounts on TikTok - over 27,000 in that instance. I think it’s a global issue, not just in South Africa, although we are aware of two recent examples in SA.The key point here is that we don’t mind influencers, but if you’re getting paid for it, you must be transparent about it because we’re focused on reclaiming the authentic human experience on social media. It should be clear if you’re advertising, clear if you’re an influencer, and absolutely never a bot - never a robot.Linda van Tilburg (11:13.748) Well, can we look at the business model? I assume this is to make money. So, who’s involved with you? Where are you heading? What kind of funding do you have?Ludré Stevens (11:18.415) Absolutely. Let me start by saying we are building this to compete and to scale. We are doing this in an organic way, not in a hockey stick manner where people think you arrive today and tomorrow you have 100 million users. We’re not chasing Silicon Valley; we are pursuing organic, real growth to establish ourselves as a serious social media platform in the EU and globally.I’m quite fortunate that I’ve had a few ventures, and so have my co-founders, which allowed us to lock this up quite quickly, define the idea, the concept, and the business model integrations, as we’ve developed other apps before. We’re now at the point where we want to launch on the 1st of June. For that, we are inviting a few founding advertisers - just five brands - who will have a special spot in our journey, our story, and our PR, allowing us to launch without needing to raise investment or venture capital or government funding to get us off the ground.We may consider that in the future if we reach a scale of 100 million users, at which point we would need funding to ensure we have the right resources in place. So, we’ve bootstrapped up to this point. We’re bringing in a few funding advertisers to launch on the 1st of June. At that point, we’ll have standard advertising features available, where advertisers can have a post appear to users every ten posts - standard features. Hopefully, from that point on, organic revenue will carry us to a point where we may want to scale to that massive mark. The good thing is we don’t need to break the bank to get this launched. Once we achieve user traction and product-market fit, revenue can start quite early in this process.Linda van Tilburg (13:07.943) Well, Ludré, we know you because you’ve been involved in various campaigns for the DA, and you’ve been very successful, particularly in ensuring that people can now retain their South African passports and other campaigns like that. But what is your background that has led you to launch this social media app?Ludré Stevens (13:27.671) Let’s start at the beginning. My background is in banking - I’m not an evil banker - and I used to work for Lehman Brothers. You may know them from the crash in 2008, and just for the record, it didn’t crash because of me! I also worked for Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. After that, I began my career as a tech entrepreneur, and we built an email workflow tool that’s used by major banks.After that, I caught the public service bug and launched DA Abroad. The DA, as you mentioned, is a South African political party, and DA Abroad is an overseas network for the DA. This allowed me to give back to society and be part of a solution rather than just complaining about issues. Since then, I’ve also launched a few other smaller ventures, like Easy Schedule Apps, and so forth. My daytime job is as a tech entrepreneur, and my nighttime job is volunteering for DA Abroad. In between, I get all these crazy ideas that make me wonder why I keep doing this to myself! But the nice thing is that after you’ve done a few of these, it becomes easier because you have the contacts and the know-how.Ludré Stevens (13:27.671) But yes, I must say, Linda, I’m so proud that last week we won a court case in the Constitutional Court of South Africa, which stated that all South Africans who lost their citizenship inadvertently since 1996, due to a certain clause in a specific act, would have it restored automatically. No ifs, no buts, no nothing. There’s no need to refer it back to Parliament to change the clause; it simply states that this clause is invalid. So, we literally got tens of thousands of South Africans their birthright back last week. I’m very, very chuffed with that. It was an 11-year battle.I guess because of my political background, I am aware of how messaging can be skewed and how it doesn’t always reach people. People tend to only see their own messaging and not that of others. That’s why we built the Discover or News Feed in our app, so you can see what other people think and say - not just what bots and your echo chamber want you to see. I know we are blurring the lines a bit here, but you know, this is a real interview.Linda van Tilburg (15:35.206) Social media platforms have become very political, so I think that’s very appropriate. What are you hoping for? Since you’re launching now, do you have a specific number of members you want to reach by the end of the year, or how do you plan to grow?Ludré Stevens (15:41.59) Exactly. Yes.Ludré Stevens (15:54.085) People always chase certain bragging metrics - 10,000 users, 100,000 users, a million users in the first month. We don’t want to do that right now. We want to achieve product-market fit because if you get that right, the rest follows. Product-market fit means that consumers, the people who post content, and advertisers all get value for their money. It may take us a little while to get the product-market fit exactly right, and I’m okay with that because it makes growth easier. However, if you try to grow before achieving product-market fit, you burn cash, grow too fast, and end up with something that simply won’t survive.So, the current thinking is to do the public launch after we’ve had this initial MVP test by invitation and gathered feedback. If we don’t gain traction, we will adapt the model. Our initial approach was to stop all the noise and get the real message out there, but people want hype. They want to know what’s going on in the world, and that’s the feedback we received.Therefore, we added the Trending tab, which allows us to see what people generally like, repost, and engage with, so you can see what real popularity looks like and what the actual topics are, as opposed to manufactured outrage. That’s the first example of how we’re getting closer to product-market fit. To answer your question, our first objective is achieving product-market fit, and that might take a little while. However, we plan to be a large app, like a European big tech platform - dare I say, tens of millions of users. I can only hope and wish for that once we achieve product-market fit.Linda van Tilburg (17:28.271) And you want to take on Twitter, Threads, and Blue Sky?Ludré Stevens (17:32.76) Well, I see us as an alternative or a complement. Those platforms obviously have huge followings and significant purposes; they have great advertising models that work for them. Perhaps our niche will be the quieter one, where more rational companies come to our site to make announcements about their financials, listings, and events, while they go to those other sites for gossip and politics. I’m not sure yet; we’ll figure out what that product-market fit will eventually be. The idea is that we are a market-focused platform. The basic concept is the same as Threads, Twitter, Blue Sky, and all the others, but the difference is no bots, no AI, and no manufactured outrage - just back to basics.Linda van Tilburg (18:20.664) Wow, Ludré, this all sounds so exciting. We’ll definitely watch this space. Thank you so much.Ludré Stevens (18:25.795) Thank you, Linda. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

London-based SA entrepreneur Ludré Stevens takes on “broken” social media with bot-free platform Opino

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