The locally made Next Sosyal aims to be Türkiye’s favorite social media platform, having climbed to the top of Apple’s App Store in the social networking category days after its launch.
Also known as Next Teknofest Sosyal, the app offers users updates on technology, lifestyle, and current events.
It has gained traction as a local alternative in Türkiye's fast-growing digital space.
The platform also features T3 AI, a large language model developed by the T3 Foundation in collaboration with Turkish defense firm Baykar. Described as an "ethical AI," T3 AI allows users to interact directly by tagging its handle in posts.
Next Sosyal's rapid rise reflects growing interest in locally developed tech ecosystems, especially those with embedded artificial intelligence tools.
The app’s launch notably follows a controversy with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok earlier this month.
The chatbot, developed by Musk's company xAI, sparked backlash from the Turkish public after it posted vulgarities against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his late mother and personalities, while responding to users' questions on the X social media platform.
The offensive responses were also directed toward modern Türkiye's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and religious values.
Authorities initially sought to impose a total access ban on Grok but the chatbot remains operational in Türkiyem with the Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu warning Türkiye would restrict Grok if necessary.
The incident is part of a broader controversy surrounding a recent update to Grok, which resulted in more "politically incorrect" and unfiltered responses.
In response to mounting controversy, X said it was aware of the recent posts and had taken immediate action to remove inappropriate content.
Concerns over political bias, hate speech and factual inaccuracy in AI chatbots have mounted since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022.
