It's something we think about a lot. And honestly, it's something you should hold us to.
"Isn't this just going to turn every hidden gem into a tourist trap?"
"I've seen what happens when a place goes viral on TikTok. People show up, trash the place, and it's never the same again. How is PinIt any different?"
"These places are special because nobody knows about them. The moment you put them on a map, that's gone."
We hear this. We've asked ourselves the same things. And rather than give you a polished answer, we want to give you an honest one.
You're right to be worried
What happens when a place goes viral is genuinely awful to watch. A quiet waterfall gets featured in a trending video. Within a weekend, hundreds of people show up who’ve never heard of it before, have no idea how to get there safely, and leave litter behind on the way out. The thing that made it special gets destroyed by the attention.
That's not a hypothetical. It's happened to places all over the world, and it keeps happening. So yes, any platform that helps people find hidden places has to grapple with this. We're not going to pretend otherwise.
But there's a difference between going viral and being discovered
TikTok and Instagram are built to push content to as many people as possible as fast as possible. When something trends there, it isn't sending a handful of curious explorers to a quiet place. It's sending thousands of people at once, most of whom had never thought about visiting until the algorithm put it in front of them.
Some platforms use a subscription as their answer to this. The thinking is that if someone's paying monthly, they're a more serious visitor. Maybe. But a subscription has never stopped anyone from leaving litter. What a paywall actually does is tell everyone who can't afford it that these places aren't for them. We don't think that's right. The ability to explore shouldn't come down to what you can spend each month.
PinIt works differently. Discovery here is slower and user-led. People actively explore places they’re interested in, rather than being pulled through a feed designed to maximise reach and engagement. When a place comes up for you on PinIt, the goal is to connect the right person with the right place, not to make something trend.
Eventually, PinIt may also include a feed of places you might enjoy or want to visit. If it does, it will still be designed around relevance and personal interest, rather than trending popularity or viral reach.
The Explorer's Pledge is part of our answer
When you get directions to a location on PinIt for the first time, you're asked to commit to the Explorer's Pledge. That's not a box to tick and forget. It's us saying: knowing about this place comes with a responsibility to look after it.
No other platform does this. You won't get a reminder to leave no trace before a TikTok plays. We think that matters.
We haven't fully solved this, and we won't pretend we have
Any platform that helps people find places carries some version of this risk. We believe that more people spending time in wild, beautiful places is a good thing for the world. People protect what they love, but only if they show up the right way.
That's what PinIt is trying to build: not just a map, but a community of people who understand that the privilege of knowing about a place comes with the responsibility to look after it. We think that's worth working towards, even knowing we won't always get it right.
A few things you can do
- Add context to your pin. If somewhere is fragile, busy, or showing signs of strain, say so. A note about what to expect, or how to show up, makes a real difference to the next person.
- Let us know if something's going wrong. If a pin is attracting the wrong kind of attention, flag it. The community helps keep things honest.
This is something we want to work on together
If you've got ideas for how PinIt could handle this better, whether that's how we present sensitive locations, how we talk about responsible access, or anything else, we genuinely want to hear them. This isn't us just being polite. Building this right matters to us, and the people best placed to help us do that are the ones actually out there exploring.
We'd also love to work directly with the organisations, land managers, and national parks whose places end up on PinIt. If you look after somewhere that's been pinned and you'd like to work with us, whether that's adding guidance, flagging concerns, or anything else, please get in touch. We'd love to have those conversations.
The world's hidden gems belong to everyone. But belonging to everyone means everyone has a responsibility to protect them.
