Before Instagram stories, endless reels and algorithm-curated feeds, there was Orkut, where friendships were built through scraps, testimonials and communities dedicated to everything from college life to hating Mondays. More than a decade after Google shut it down, its founder bets people still want that version of the internet back. So far, over 2.66 lakh people have signed up to express their interest.
Orkut Büyükkökten, the Turkish engineer who created the social network in 2004, is running a public campaign to gauge demand for a new platform centred on communities and genuine human connections. The website, orkut.com, showed 266,119 signatures across 119 countries at the time of publishing, with 1,631 people signing up in the preceding hour.
In an open letter on the website, Büyükkökten argued that social media has strayed from its original purpose. Platforms, he said, have spent two decades prioritising attention and engagement over meaningful relationships. The rise of artificial intelligence further threatens the premise that made social networking special: the knowledge that there is a real person on the other side.
“Social media should help us find our people,” the campaign website says, asking users to support a more human internet built around “people, communities, and genuine connection”.
In an X post, Büyükkökten asked for the public’s support to bring back the old-fashioned social media platform.
“Help me bring Orkut back in that spirit. Add your name at orkut.com and share your supporter card with someone you want to bring along,” he wrote.
How would it work?
The proposed network would put communities at the centre of the experience. Recalling the old Orkut, Büyükkökten points to groups formed around shared interests and everyday experiences. His argument is that social media feeds turn users into an audience, while communities give them a sense of belonging. He has also flagged bots, AI-generated content and deepfakes as threats to trust online.
The campaign asks people to sign a petition and share digital supporter cards with friends. Registration is free and requires an email address and country of residence. The cards include a unique supporter code and QR code, which help track visits generated through sharing.
But there is an important caveat: Orkut is not back yet. The campaign is a way to measure interest in a possible new social network, not a relaunch of the original Google-owned platform. No launch date has been announced.
Launched in 2004, Orkut became particularly popular in India and Brazil, helping define an early era of social networking before Facebook and other platforms took over. Google shut it down in September 2014.
This is not Büyükkökten’s first attempt to revive the idea. The orkut.com domain returned online in 2022 with a message about building communities and combating hate and misinformation. His later social network, Hello, was shut down in April 2022.
For now, the signatures show that the idea still has an audience. Whether nostalgia can translate into a functioning social network remains to be seen.
