How PeopleOnly Works

Every account is a real human being

On most social platforms, you have no way of knowing whether the account you're reading is a real person, a bot, an astroturf operation, or a teenager pretending to be a geopolitical analyst. PeopleOnly solves this by requiring identity verification before anyone can publish or react.

Verification is handled by Didit, an independent KYC provider. Your identity documents never touch PeopleOnly's servers — Didit holds them. We receive only a cryptographic token confirming you are a real, living human being. Verification cannot be bought, tiered, or fast-tracked. Everyone goes through the same process.

This is the foundation everything else is built on. A reaction from a verified person carries weight precisely because that person is accountable for it. An article published under a verified identity cannot later be disowned.

Real words with real consequences

PeopleOnly is built around one uncomfortable truth that most platforms avoid: if you are a real person saying something to a real audience, you are responsible for what you say.

Defamatory content can be challenged in court. PeopleOnly cooperates fully with valid court orders from recognised democratic jurisdictions. If a court orders us to disclose who published something, we will — and every such disclosure is logged publicly and permanently on our immutable disclosure ledger. There is no silent surveillance. No secret demands. Every disclosure is on record.

This is not censorship. We take no editorial positions, and we do not remove content because it is unpopular, uncomfortable, or politically inconvenient. We cooperate only with valid legal orders. Anonymity is not a shield here — but neither is power.

No algorithmic manipulation

PeopleOnly does not manipulate your feed. There is no black-box algorithm deciding what you should see in order to maximise your time on the platform. Your feed is determined by who you follow and the sort order you choose — nothing else.

Advertising on PeopleOnly is targeted by content topic, never by individual user behaviour. We do not build psychological profiles. We do not sell data to third parties. Posts cannot be paid to reach more people. Organic reach stays honest.

Why Signal is different from Trending

Trending on Twitter, Facebook and TikTok measures engagement velocity — how fast something spreads, how many reactions it gets, how much time it keeps people on the platform. Platforms are incentivised to surface content that provokes — because outrage keeps you scrolling.

Signal measures something entirely different: the quality ratio of verified human reactions. Every person who reacted is a real, verified human being. Signal asks — of everyone who reacted, what proportion found this credible or significant? A story verified by 80% of its readers outranks a story that went viral but 90% found unverified or one-sided.

It is an imperfect but honest attempt to answer a question no other platform asks: what do real, accountable humans actually consider worth knowing?

The minimum threshold is 5 reactions from verified people. Below that, there is not enough signal to rank meaningfully. Above it, quality ratio determines order — not volume, not velocity, not who paid for promotion.

The reaction system

PeopleOnly uses five reactions, arranged as two mutually exclusive pairs plus one standalone:

• Credible and Unverified — your assessment of the factual basis. You can only pick one.
• Balanced and One-sided — your assessment of the framing. You can only pick one.
• Significant — this matters, regardless of whether you agree with it.

Unverified reactions are shown alongside verified ones, not hidden. If a large portion of verified readers find something unverified or one-sided, that is information. We do not suppress reactions because they are unflattering to the author.

Logged-out visitors can also react, but their reactions are tracked separately and clearly labelled. Verified reactions and unverified visitor reactions are never mixed without distinction.

Verified takes

Any verified user can write a take on any piece of content — a minimum-20-word commentary that becomes its own post, linked back to the original. Takes go through an AI quality check before publishing: not a content filter, but a coherence check to ensure the take engages meaningfully with the original rather than just restating it or saying “I agree.”

Takes appear in the Signal feed and can themselves be reacted to. One take per user per article. Takes are immutable once posted — you cannot edit or delete what you said.

Who publishes on PeopleOnly

PeopleOnly is built for independent verified journalists, podcasters, musicians, politicians, and verified members of the public worldwide. Different profile types have different content tools:

• Journalists — publish articles with beats, source transparency declarations, certainty levels, and depth indicators.
• Podcasters — publish podcast episodes.
• Musicians — publish tracks.
• Politicians — publish posts and statements.
• Verified members — publish posts and verified takes.

All profiles are verified. There is no unverified tier. There is no blue-tick-for-cash. The verified badge means one thing: this is a real person.