Franchesca Ramsey Instagram – When BlackPlanet went live in 1999 — nearly three years before Friendster, four years before MySpace, five years before Facebook, and seven years before Twitter — the internet was still seen by many as a giant library. Sure, the web had chat rooms, bulletin boards, and listservs. But BlackPlanet expanded what it meant to commune online: The site arguably laid the foundation for social media as we know it. Now, nearly 25 years later, looking back at BlackPlanet’s glory days can be more than just an exercise in nostalgia. “Today’s social-media platforms often seem designed to reward the worst in humanity, subjecting their users to rampant hate speech and misinformation,” writes Hannah Giorgis. “Perhaps by revisiting BlackPlanet and the story of its rise, we can start to envision a different future for the social web — this time, one with the potential to be kinder, less dangerous, and more fun than what the past two decades have given us.” Tap the link in bio to listen or read more, via @theatlantic in News . Illustration: Frank Dorrey Narrator: Franchesca Ramsey @chescaleigh Writer @hannahgiorgis