Can UpScrolled Keep Up With a Surge in Users?
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last year, Issam Hijazi launched UpScrolled after users decried censorship and shadow-banning on other platforms. When TikTok transferred ownership of its US operations to American investors, UpScrolled's user base soared. Issam joins Kate to talk about his hopes for the new social media platform - and respond to controversy.
Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from Alexis Ohanian’s newest tech venture to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From Wired, this is the big interview, where we get to know the people behind the headlines |
| 0:08.9 | in conversations that explore the intersection of technology, power, and culture. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm Katie Drummond, Wired's global editorial director, and today we're talking about upscrolled, |
| 0:18.2 | a relatively new social media app that lets you post |
| 0:21.4 | text, photos, and videos, and says it prioritizes content over algorithms. |
| 0:26.7 | The app started off the year with a bang. |
| 0:29.0 | It became the number one downloaded app on U.S. App Stores in late January, and Upsrolled |
| 0:34.1 | says it has now surpassed 5.5 million users. |
| 0:38.3 | The app was created by Isam Hijazi, a Palestinian-Jordanian Australian with a background in tech, |
| 0:44.8 | who looked at the options out there and said, actually, I want to make something new. |
| 0:49.4 | He joins me now from Amsterdam, Lucky Isam. Hi, welcome to the big interview. Hi, Katie. Thanks for having |
| 0:56.0 | me. Very happy that you're here. Now, I want to actually start by just talking about your background. |
| 1:01.8 | It's a fascinating one. You've worked for big tech companies before. You worked at IBM. You worked at |
| 1:06.3 | Oracle. Tell us a little bit about that, about your history with tech and how it shaped your views on the tech industry and on social media more specifically. |
| 1:16.7 | Absolutely. Great question. So I've been working in the tech industry for the past 17 years and a half. |
| 1:22.1 | And even prior to that, I started coding actually when I was 12 years old. So I'm pretty much involved in IT and technology since a very |
| 1:28.3 | early stage. Now, within my career, as you mentioned, I did work with the likes of Oracle, |
| 1:33.0 | IBM, Hitachi, and then small startups. As a young professional, that is a dream shop. That is something |
| 1:39.1 | that every kid wants to be in. It's great companies. they have great technologies, and there's a lot of |
| 1:45.3 | opportunity to learn. But as you get to understand and learn about the mechanics of these companies, |
| 1:52.2 | you start to wonder if this is the right place to be at. And this is something I've been |
| 1:56.3 | started to have in the past three years, and that made me shift my focus on wanting to start something new. |
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