About us
About Debaty
We agree more often than we think. The conversation just sounds different — and that is not a force of nature, it is a design. This is why we are building a different one.
Why Debaty exists
Three quarters of Dutch people think disagreement in the country keeps growing. The Netherlands Institute for Social Research looked into it: on many subjects we agree more than we think we do, and the differences are not growing. What people do object to is the tone. The loudest voices get the most attention, listening is poor, and anyone who is unsure drops out.
That tone is not a force of nature. Most social networks earn from your attention: the longer you stay and the more fiercely you react, the better it works out for the advertising machine. Anger holds on, so anger floats to the top.
And people are running out of energy for it. Worldwide, four in ten people now sometimes or often avoid the news — not out of indifference, but out of fatigue.
Where the figures above come from:
- Netherlands Institute for Social Research on the harsh tone in public debate (2022) ↗
- Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2025 ↗
So we are making Debaty: a social network where the conversation is the product, not you. If we earn nothing from your attention, your timeline does not need to hold on to you either — and that changes what happens on your screen.
The discus fish in our logo blows bubbles and swims in schools. That is how Debaty is meant too: start small with one light question a day, and still never be on your own.
What we stand for
Three things that are different here. Not as atmosphere: they are written down on a public page, with a date and a list of changes.
You can see why something is on your timeline
Every bubble carries an explanation of why it is in front of you, and every signal that counts has its own slider in your settings. What you set to zero really does weigh zero. A timeline you cannot understand is a timeline you cannot trust.
How the timeline works →We never sell you
No advertising profile, no data sales. Debaty lives off a voluntary subscription and off ads that belong to a topic, never to a person. If you want to leave, you simply take all your data with you.
How Debaty earns money →Honest about what is not there
Debaty is young and unfinished. What works is on, what is not ready is off, and whatever changes we write down — including when it is a repair of something that was broken.
What changes in each release →
These are three of the seven promises we have written down publicly. Each promise comes with a line telling you how to hold us to it.
How a day on Debaty works
You start small, and you decide how far you go.
Start with the question of the day
One question a day, usually of the pineapple-on-pizza variety, sometimes with a bit more weight. You answer with one tap and then see your school: who is close to you and who is far away. No right or wrong.
Say what you think in a bubble
Short posts — we call them bubbles. Following people, replying, a timeline: that part works the way you are used to.
Let a bubble grow into a debate
If a bubble is worth a real conversation, it becomes a debate: positions for, against and nuanced side by side, with sources as a full part of it. A joke is allowed to grow into a good conversation here.
Appreciate with words, not with a counter
There is no like counter. You value a contribution with "Strong point", "Well supported" or "Changed my mind". Anyone who changes their mind here does not lose face — they get credit for it.
Who makes this
Debaty is built by JGHP B.V., a small Dutch company with no outside investors. That is not modesty but part of the design: there is nobody who can demand one day that we start earning from your data after all. One party you can hold to account, with an address and an email that are genuinely ours.
- JGHP B.V.
- Kapitein Luidingaflat 26, 3333 CM Zwijndrecht
- Chamber of Commerce
- 81817312
- VAT number
- NL862231000B01
- info@debaty.com
Servers, database and storage run inside the European Union, under European law. One thing honestly belongs with that: images and video sit in Cloudflare's European storage, and Cloudflare is an American company. So "in the EU" is not the same as "beyond American reach", and we would rather say that ourselves than have you read it somewhere else.
Where your data lives →Where we are now
Debaty is in beta. There is already a lot in it, some things are still missing, and now and then something breaks. That is not an apology but the reason to be here now: whoever is early helps decide which conversations become normal here.
Check it yourself
Everything above is written out in full somewhere, readable without an account.
- Our promises: what we commit to and how you hold us to it →
- Privacy statement →
- Where your data lives →
- How the timeline works →
- How a member note works →
- How Debaty earns money →
- Transparency report →
- Our guidelines →
- Moderation policy →
- Terms →
- Advertising on Debaty →
- The blog: what we announce and why →
- The changelog: what actually changed in each release →
- Contact →
Do you have an account? Then What we have about you shows exactly what is stored about you, with your own figures. You do have to log in for that — it is about you, after all.
Feel like joining?
Registration is by invitation for now: we let in small groups at a time, in order of sign-up. Being on the waiting list costs you nothing but an email address.
Join the waiting list