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Orkut founder Büyükkökten asks users to back a revival of the social network

Orkut Büyükkökten, creator of the Google-era social network Orkut, has asked people to sign up in support of bringing it back as a "human" alternative to algorithm- and AI-driven feeds. It is unclear whether a new product is being built.

2 outlets · 0L · 2C · 0R First reported Account updated
Image: TechCrunch

The story, neutrally told

Centre · 2Orkut Büyükkökten, who created the social network Orkut while working at Google, has publicly called for its revival, asking people to visit Orkut.com and add their names in support of a new "human" social network. Centre · 1TechCrunch says the appeal was made in a post on X on Thursday, and Büyükkökten also published a letter on Orkut.com. Centre · 2In the letter, Büyükkökten criticises two decades of attention-optimised feeds and algorithms, and says artificial intelligence is "dissolving the one premise that made social networking special and worth building: that there was a person on the other side."

Centre · 2They write that they want to "rebuild the internet we first loved", with authentic people, real connection and belonging, and want communities that reward kindness and trust. Centre · 1Hindustan Times reports that the Orkut site has a "sign the petition" section claiming more than 266,102 people have joined. Centre · 2Orkut launched in 2004 as a Google product and became hugely popular in India and Brazil before losing ground to Facebook; Google shut it down in September 2014, saying communities on YouTube, Blogger and Google+ had outgrown it.

Centre · 1Büyükkökten has tried before to return to social networking: they launched Hello in 2016, which shut down in 2020 after more than 2 million downloads, against about 300 million active users on Orkut, according to TechCrunch. Centre · 1In 2022 they said they were "building something new", and in 2024 told WIRED they were working on a network that would use AI and machine learning to build communities; TechCrunch says that platform has not launched. Centre · 1Büyükkökten has not said whether a new version of Orkut is in development or will ever launch, and did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left0 outlets

No left outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

Centre2 outlets

Framing
Both outlets treat it as a nostalgic comeback appeal. Hindustan Times leads with the question of why Orkut disappeared; TechCrunch leads with the founder's stance against algorithms and AI content and adds scepticism about whether anything is being built.
Emphasis
HT: Orkut's history, the 2014 shutdown, Büyükkökten's biography and the petition count. TechCrunch: the founder's earlier ventures (Hello, the WIRED-described project) and the lack of clarity on a product.
Leaves out or plays down
HT does not mention Hello's failure or the unlaunched AI project, nor that no product has been confirmed. TechCrunch does not give the petition count.
Charged language
“make the internet human again”“hit the undo button”
For example
“wants to hit the undo button and bring the site back to "make the internet human again."” — Hindustan Times
“Orkut's founder is now taking aim at algorithms and AI-generated content.” — TechCrunch

Right0 outlets

No right outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.