The news: BuzzFeed is creating its own social media platform, called BF Island. The social network could help BuzzFeed shift focus from its publisher roots and into being primarily a tech and social media company, per Axios.

• BF Island, which will be built to “spread joy and enable playful creative expression,” per BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti, will start as a private beta this year.
• Its mission statement includes making a space for women and other marginalized groups—people who could feel alienated by Meta’s recent moderation policy changes.