The side effect of widespread Internet and smartphone access has been that everyone who has an opinion can now express it. However, this has often led to more trouble than it is worth, with social platforms like Facebook and Twitter becoming battlegrounds and spewing out thousands of related but hard to track threads on every new issue.
This problem was what Akshat Jain and Anuj Goel saw as an opportunity, leading them to start Swipe, a social platform that is meant to serve as a centralised hub for opinion.“We came up with the idea late last year, and seeing issues like intolerance, JNU, the Haryana reservation row and more being debated on the parallel judiciary system that has developed on Facebook and Twitter, we went ahead with it,” says Akshat. The Swipe app features questions based on social issues, that have been researched and briefly described within the app. Users can then swipe right or left, based on whether they agree or disagree with the statement, and the answer is recorded and displayed as a percentage.
“We ensure that we do not ask predictive questions, and votes once made cannot be edited, so we get data on what society thinks about an issue. Unlike a social platform, which will have thousands of threads on the same issue, and where people cannot truly express what they feel because others they know will see, Swipe is meant to serve as a central portal for opinion,” explains Akshat.
He elaborates that the data is not meant for commercial purposes, but rather as a guide that can help NGOs and policy makers make decisions based on society's thoughts on a certain issue. After registering their opinion with a swipe, users can further explain their stand in the comments.
Topics generally stay open for seven to 14 days depending on how sensitive the issue is, and some of them get summarised in blog posts made available on the public domain. "We went ahead with the idea as an app because anyone with a smartphone can voice his or her opinion. I've had senior citizens say that this allows them to still make their voice heard without the hassle of signing up for a social media account or going to Jantar Mantar to protest."
Currently limited to India and Indians abroad, Akshat aims to throw open the app to more parts of South-East Asia in the coming months and continue expanding to meet the goal he and Anuj started off with. "Technology should be used to address social issues, not misused to ignite them,"
