"We will empower you to make your own choices about what content you are served, and to directly edit misleading headlines, or flag problem posts," reads the introduction to WT:Social.
"We will foster an environment where bad actors are removed because it is right, not because it suddenly affects our bottom-line."
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Mr Wales described the advertising-led business model favoured by the social network giants as "problematic".
"It turns out the huge winner is low-quality content," he said.
Mr Wales launched a crowd-sourced news platform called Wikitribune in 2017, aimed at tackling fake news.
However, in October 2018 it let go of its team of professional journalists.
WT:Social is a separate entity to Wikipedia.
Social media consultant Zoe Cairns said she thought the network would have to grow its numbers quickly in order to prove itself to be a viable alternative to the giants.
"It's going to need a lot of money ploughed into it," she said.
"People are so used to social media being free. I think businesses might pay for it, but people are so used to having news at their fingertips for free."