What if you could leave Facebook or Twitter and take all your posts, friends, and uploads with you? That might actually be possible for the first time since social media appeared in our lives. The reason is something called the AT Protocol.

Most of us don’t think much about what we give up when we join a social app. We hand over our photos, our conversations, even our sense of community. In return, we get a feed we can’t control and rules we didn’t agree to. If the app shuts down or changes direction, we’re left with nothing. The AT Protocol is trying to fix that. It’s a new kind of digital foundation that puts control back into the hands of everyday users. Apps like Bluesky are already using it. A Canadian-built platform called Gander Social is next.

The problem with social media 

You’re not alone in thinking social media isn’t fun anymore. Facebook is bloated with ads and AI slop. Instagram pushes thirst traps and crypto scams into your feed without asking. Twitter became “X” and completely lost the plot. The list goes on. 

The CEOs of these platforms hoard wealth at never-before-seen levels of greed while showering corrupt politicians you don’t support with money they looted from your personal data. These companies scrape the internet and steal other people’s work to feed their crappy AI. They crowd out any competition. They manipulate voters and lie and steal and cheat. They are the modern equivalent of the robber barons from the so-called “Gilded Age.”

Social media today is toxic. And even worse, each one is its own walled garden. Your account only works inside that company. You can’t take your followers with you. You can’t move your posts. You can’t choose which algorithms decide what you see. And when moderation decisions are made, they often feel arbitrary or invisible. The platforms hold all the power, and users are left hoping they make the right call.

That’s not how the internet was supposed to work. That’s not how any of this is supposed to work. 

So what is the AT Protocol?

The AT Protocol is a new kind of internet plumbing. You don’t see it, but it changes everything.

It lets you create a portable identity, like a passport for the internet. Instead of being stuck with whatever some corrupt CEO of a platform decides for you, the AT Protocol allows you to take your profile, your posts, and all your followers with you to whatever other social media platform also supports the protocol. Algorithms, data and moderation are all handled by different services, and you can choose which one you want to park in. If you don’t like it, you can move to another one. 

Think of a protocol like a set of rules that different apps agree to follow so they can talk to each other. Email is a good example. Whether you use Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo, they all work together because they follow the same email protocols. The AT Protocol does the same thing, but for social media. It lets different apps share posts, friends, and feeds while still keeping their own unique features. It’s not a social network itself, it’s the system that lets networks connect and cooperate.

Imagine being able to say “I want this kind of feed,” or “I only want this kind of content moderation.” With AT Protocol, it’s not a fantasy. It’s the entire point. 

It’s also open-source. That means anyone can build on it, not just one company. And because it’s decentralized, there’s no single gatekeeper who can ban you, censor your content, or sell your data behind your back.

Meet Bluesky, and soon, Gander Social

This protocol is already in use with Bluesky. Surely you’ve heard of Bluesky, right? It looks and feels like Twitter, but it works very differently. You can follow people, post updates, and browse trending conversations. But you also get access to “custom feeds,” streams of content curated around your preferences. Want a politics-free zone? There’s a feed for that. Want to only see art, science, or sports? You can subscribe to feeds built just for those.

The AT Protocol was developed by a public benefit company called Bluesky Social. It began as a project funded by Twitter when Jack Dorsey was still CEO. The team behind it wanted to solve a growing problem: social media had become too centralized and too fragile. Platforms controlled everything, and users had no way to take their content or identity elsewhere. The AT Protocol was designed to change that. It gives users a portable digital identity and a way to move freely between apps without losing their posts, connections, or profile.

Bluesky is the first major app to use the AT Protocol. It may look like Twitter but underneath, it works very differently. Each user has a personal data server that stores their posts and account information. That server signs every update with cryptographic keys, which makes your identity secure and verifiable. If you ever want to leave Bluesky, you can take everything with you. Your posts, followers, and even your handle can be reconnected on another app that uses the same protocol.

Bluesky now has more than 10 million users, and it’s growing. But it’s just one app built on the AT Protocol. Others are coming.

Gander Social is one of those apps. Built in Canada and launching soon, Gander will be fully compatible with the AT Protocol. That means you can join it without starting over. This is a place where Canadians can shape their own space online, without asking permission from Silicon Valley.

If you already have a Bluesky account, you can migrate your feed to Gander and pick up right where you left off. Everything important will carry over. You will still follow the same people, they will still follow you, and your content will still be yours.

This is what makes the AT Protocol different from anything that came before it. It gives users control. You are no longer tied to one company’s vision of how social media should work. If you prefer how Gander looks, or how it handles moderation, you can switch without losing your voice or your audience. The protocol gives you the freedom to choose the experience that works best for you.

This matters

You don’t need to be a tech expert to see why this is important. For the last two decades, we’ve been building our lives on platforms we don’t control. We’ve adapted to their rules. We’ve tolerated their changes. And we’ve lost touch with the idea that the internet could work for us.

The AT Protocol doesn’t fix everything. It doesn’t magically eliminate trolls or misinformation. But it creates the conditions for a better system. You decide who to trust with your content. You pick the feed you want. If a platform lets you down, you can leave without losing everything.

That’s never been possible before. Now it is.

You might not join Bluesky today. You might not even hear about Gander Social. But make no mistake: something big is happening here.

The AT Protocol is giving us a way to rebuild what we lost. A digital world where users come first. A future where leaving a platform doesn’t mean starting from scratch. 

This isn’t just a new app. It’s the start of a better internet.