--- title: New system gives users more control over their online... description: MIT researchers built Social.Wiki, a platform where users can edit any social app made within it and choose which edits by others they see. An edit button lets... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/new-system-gives-users-more-control-over-their-online-experience-pfhplyjfe twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: New system gives users more control over their online experience | daily.dev og:description: MIT researchers built Social.Wiki, a platform where users can edit any social app made within it and choose which edits by others they see. An edit button lets... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/new-system-gives-users-more-control-over-their-online-experience-pfhplyjfe og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/pfhPlyJfe.png og:image:alt: New system gives users more control over their online experience og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # New system gives users more control over their online experience **[MIT News](https://daily.dev/sources/mit)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary MIT researchers built Social.Wiki, a platform where users can edit any social app made within it and choose which edits by others they see. An edit button lets anyone change source code manually or via an AI assistant, from text color to a ride-share pricing algorithm. The system uses 'plural governance' so each user sets rules, like trusting edits endorsed by two friends, and a decentralized infrastructure with a 'data guard' protects user data. No coding is required, and the platform handles backend work like servers and databases. It builds on the team's earlier Graffiti framework and will be presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in November. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is Social.Wiki and how does it let users customize social apps? Social.Wiki is a platform developed by MIT researchers that lets users edit any social application built within it, such as changing a messaging site's styling or a ride-share app's pricing algorithm, by editing source code manually or prompting an AI assistant. Users also choose which of others' edits they see through a 'plural governance' system, and the platform handles backend work like servers and databases automatically. _Developers exploring user-customizable or decentralized app models can track platforms like this on daily.dev._ ### How does Social.Wiki protect user data in a system where anyone can edit shared apps? Social.Wiki stores user data separately from the websites that access it and uses a 'data guard' that prompts users to review each request from a website attempting to access their data. This decentralized infrastructure means no website is tied to a particular machine, so there is no centralized ownership of websites or underlying infrastructure, according to researcher Theia Henderson. _Anyone weighing decentralized architecture trade-offs can follow this kind of design work on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Social media’s next evolution: user-controlled algorithms](https://daily.dev/posts/social-media-s-next-evolution-user-controlled-algorithms-umwuv0um5) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Academics have a duty to defend open knowledge systems like Wikipedia](https://daily.dev/posts/academics-have-a-duty-to-defend-open-knowledge-systems-like-wikipedia-ehhp5dams) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The malleable computer](https://daily.dev/posts/the-malleable-computer-tv2wsgsjj) · David Heinemeier Hansson · 60 upvotes · 4 comments - [The Future of Web Apps: Will AI Agents Generate UIs on the Fly?](https://daily.dev/posts/the-future-of-web-apps-will-ai-agents-generate-uis-on-the-fly--fjijoyhtu) · InfoQ · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#data-privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/data-privacy), [#mit](https://daily.dev/tags/mit), [#decentralization](https://daily.dev/tags/decentralization) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/new-system-gives-users-more-control-over-their-online-experience-pfhplyjfe) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"New system gives users more control over their online experience","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/new-system-gives-users-more-control-over-their-online-experience-pfhplyjfe","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/new-system-gives-users-more-control-over-their-online-experience-pfhplyjfe"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T04:05:51.907Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T04:06:17.330Z","description":"MIT researchers built Social.Wiki, a platform where users can edit any social app made within it and choose which edits by others they see. 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