CAN was founded by August Lamm in response to conversations with artists, writers, business owners, community organizers, and others whose social and professional lives have become inextricable from social media platforms that profit off of the time and attention of its user base.

In the decade and a half since its introduction, social media has supplanted all earlier networks, even those with centuries of history behind them. As a result, archaic networks have atrophied to the point of irrelevance.

Facing a loss of income, momentum, and community if they leave, social media users have no choice but to stay online and wrestle with the diminishing returns of exploitative algorithms.

The aim of CAN is to take back the human network, to work toward a future in which relationships are once again unmediated and unmonetized, allowed to form organically both online and off.