Blacktag, a revolutionary new social platform specifically for Black creators, is the product of two innovators coming together to spark change.  

Ousman Sahko Sow and Akin Adebowale had “humble beginnings” that propelled their lives before they founded Blacktag. Adebowale moved from Africa to the United States when he was 3. Years later, he attended the University of Georgia, where his love for creativity and technology combined as he pursued fine arts and computer science. Those elements, a signature in his personal brand, led him to the Big Apple, where he pursued a role in music and it allowed him to work with big names like Drake, Kanye West and Jill Scott.  

His switch to the corporate sector led him to work with BET’s founder Bob Johnson, who taught him the power that comes from a Black brand. Those experiences became essential to how he wanted to develop something specifically for Black people.  

Adebowale’s journey continued and he met Sow, who after living in other countries, moved from Sierra Leone to America as a teenager. His broad experience traveling made filmmaking and photography an attractive medium for him to pursue, leading him to film school. After working in the TV and film industry, he began directing before pursuing entrepreneurship through a production company he created called Lunchbox Studios.  

Sow worked with numerous brands, including Spotify and Google, who then asked him to lead their global content efforts. While working at a tech giant was great, he met Adebowale and the two combined their minds to connect product use and content through storytelling.  

As two natural creators, they realized there was a market they needed to deliver something to. “Through that discovery, Blacktag was really that key driver for us and we went on and here we are today, 18 months later,” Sow said.  

Their diverse and well-rounded backgrounds helped them identify key issues in the industry that are hurting Black creatives like themselves. “From all these experiences come us trying to solve these issues for equity,” which, according to Adebowale, is a pillar of Blacktag along with innovation and service.  

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Black creators have faced a slew of challenges from bias in algorithms to not receiving credit for their contributions to viral trends. One of the key things Blacktag focuses on to combat this is listening to creators to understand why they are leaving other platforms. Sow said when Black creators don’t get credit for their work, it creates a massive gap economically. They created Blacktag to give Black creators a place where their “art” gets adequate visibility, recognition and opportunities from new audiences and brands.  

Ownership and compensation are important to Adebowale and Sow. “We have the benefits of being a smaller, nimble and newer operation and also being one that’s Black-owned, Black-founded and Black-operated,” Adebowale said, noting how it has helped the core of their work remain focused on fulfilling the need of creators as opposed to operating for revenue. “We think about the creator first. It’s a creator-driven platform.”  

That dedication to the creator is leading their actionable steps as Blacktag works to create a compensation structure for creatives on its platform. This helps improve economic empowerment with the immense power of Black creatives.  

On other platforms, biases in technology have led to controversial events, like when artificial intelligence used by Facebook couldn’t tell the difference between Black men and primates. Blacktag creators are protected from these sorts of biases because their tech is built by Black people. “We understand our own people because we are those people and for us it’s looking at what has been biased in other systems and how do we create a product that stands to just do what is right to do,” Sow said.  

For Blacktag, it’s about supporting the Black community and the Black creators they believe in. Being a small company has helped them keep their work personal and intimate. “For us, being small allows us to focus on that very human-centered play, which is less algorithmic and more so curation,” said Adebowale.  

He and Sow are not trying to create the Black version of any social media platforms that currently exist. Instead, their focus is on new innovation that is transforming the way Black creators engage with the community and each other. Blacktag is not open to just anyone and its founders have a certain number in mind of how many creators they will allow. “We always want it to be something that feels very special and feels very thoughtful and so relying less on the robots and algorithms to determine what good content or good community is,” Adebowale said. “It’s very much curated and we can afford to be that because we’re not looking to be a billion-user platform. This is very much an apparatus for equity.”  

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Sow said today’s other social platforms were built to scale as quickly as possible so they use algorithms to help. He and Adebowale aren’t trying to have a billion users. Instead, they are concerning themselves with service and providing one to creators.  

Content on Blacktag spans from unscripted and scripted work to music and films. Creatives like social media influencer Cleotrapa have joined the platform to leverage the unique opportunities and compensation model that will be more equitable for them. Additionally, 100 Black creators are now on the platform in a partnership between Blacktag and i-D Magazine.  

To become a creator on the platform, prospective users can sign up and fill out an application submitting their bio and work. The company’s talent director and staff then view it to verify the creator and accept. Approved creators get a channel on the platform and they can then explore opportunities to expand their work, like potential partnerships with other brands.  

Adebowale and Sow love the work they do at Blacktag. For Adebowale, his favorite part of the company is the contribution he gets to make to global equity and working with a Black team united for the same cause. Sow believes Blacktag’s work will change the future by supporting Black creators and solving problems that exist for them. “I know that every step that I take, I’m changing the future,” he said. “That future will be so much better by Blacktag existing.”  

Blacktag is available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play. It is free to download and view. If you’re interested in becoming a creator, the application to join can be found directly in the app.