The Ipswich entrepreneur who wants to end the comment war
Remmy Ajadi has spent nearly three decades in sales and business. But it was a dream and a growing unease about what social media was doing to his sons that pushed him to build something different.
ReAktu, a new social media platform that launched in March 2026, is the product of a restless mind and a father's instinct. Ajadi, who is based in Ipswich and studied fashion design at the London College of Fashion before spending 28 years across sales and entrepreneurship, did not set out to take on Facebook, TikTok or X. The idea, he says, came to him in a dream.
"Maybe subconsciously I'd been thinking about it," he reflects, "cause I do have young sons and it is scary that a tool that should be used to learn, develop and collaborate, is in so many cases being used for everything but."
Development began in July 2025, when Ajadi returned home from his father's funeral in Nigeria. Within eight months, the app was live on iOS and Android — built by a team that, he is keen to note, bought into the idea from the start.
"The team are amazing, and the great thing is they bought into the idea and are driven for its success," he says.
What makes it different
The central insight behind ReAktu is that most social media platforms are built around engagement at any cost — and the quickest route to engagement, as billions of users have discovered, is conflict. ReAktu has tried to make conflict structurally harder.
Direct replies to other users' comments are disabled. Each user gets one response per topic. Nobody can pile on. The algorithm does not reward outrage.
Instead, users engage through reactions, topic participation and an engagement points system designed to reward contribution rather than confrontation. Topics — drawn from current affairs, entertainment, sport, technology and lifestyle, and generated by a mix of AI and user submissions — run for 72 hours before resetting, though topic creators can extend their own discussions. Users control what they see and from whom, with the ability to block accounts and filter content to their stated interests.
"We created ReAktu because millions of people have stopped sharing what they really think online," Ajadi says. "Not because they have nothing to say, but because the cost of having an opinion has become too high."
Innovation over prohibition
ReAktu arrives at a moment when governments around the world are reaching for the bluntest available tool: age bans. Australia moved to restrict social media access for under-16s in 2024, and similar proposals have circulated in the UK and United States. Ajadi sees the logic as protective — remove young people from a harmful environment.
But he is not convinced that prohibition is the right answer.
"I personally don't think a blanket ban is necessary," he says. "There is so much good that could be gained from social media if it is used in the right way. The majority of the issues and responsibilities lie with the various social media platforms. They need to show they care and actually should do more, not to reward negativity, chaos, division and hate, but instead, remove and ban them."
He points out that some young people are already using these platforms constructively. "There are 16s and under that are using these platforms in the right way and are actually making a living or a difference to society."
Social media, as a concept, turned 25 this year. It is, in many respects, still a teenager itself — powerful, influential, and not yet sure what it wants to be. Ajadi's argument is that the platforms, not the users, bear the greater responsibility for what it has become.
The ambition behind the app
Ajadi is not thinking small. His short-term target is 50,000 registered users by the end of September 2026. The longer-term vision is to compete with the major platforms, reach more than 50 million users, and become, as he puts it, "the UK's answer to the likes of Facebook and TikTok."
"We are agile, fluid, we are ready to listen to our users, and we are willing and able to work with all aspects of society," he says.
Whether a self-funded startup built in Ipswich can genuinely challenge platforms with hundreds of millions — or billions — of users remains to be seen. But the frustration that Ajadi is tapping into is real. Research consistently shows that heavy social media use is associated with increased anxiety, particularly among young people, and that platform design plays a significant role in driving harmful behaviour. The idea that the problem might be fixable through better design, rather than bannable through legislation, is gaining traction in academic and policy circles.
The bottom line
Social media has had years to sort itself out. For many users — and for one Ipswich entrepreneur — it has not come close. By removing the mechanics that make online arguments so addictive and damaging, ReAktu is hoping to bring people together rather than push them apart.
ReAktu is available to download on iOS and Android. Find out more at reaktu.com.
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