In a sector long accused of partisan leanings, a new entrant is attempting to carve out neutral ground. Litmus Social, launched quietly this month under the domain litmus.social, presents itself as a corrective to the “political distortion” of existing networks.

Founded by an anonymous figure some investors have dubbed the “Banksy of Silicon Valley”, Litmus sets itself apart by allowing users to fine‑tune their own political algorithms. Rather than subjecting participants to opaque feeds, the platform gives individuals the tools to decide the degree of left‑ or right‑leaning content they wish to see.

“Litmus is designed to be a blank canvas. The only colours I bring to it are red and blue — what people choose to paint with them is entirely their own.”

The pitch comes amid mounting scrutiny over social media’s role in shaping political discourse. X, the rebranded Twitter, has in recent years been criticised as a right‑wing echo chamber, while rival platform Bluesky has been accused of veering overtly liberal. Both, according to Litmus’s founder, have failed to earn the trust of users across the political spectrum.

Neutrality, in Litmus’s telling, is not passivity but design. Its more ambitious claim is a data‑driven one: to aggregate political sentiment from its user base in a way that could provide unusual insight into public opinion. “Have you ever questioned the credibility of political polling?” the founder asked. “Litmus will create the most accurate political dataset in American history, and open it up so the public can see what the country is truly thinking.”

Whether the platform can establish itself as a credible alternative remains to be seen. But in an era of disillusionment with both traditional polling and algorithmically‑tilted feeds, the attempt to turn the volatility of online politics into something resembling a measure of truth will be closely watched.