Lens Protocol, a web3 product aimed at creating a decentralized social networking ecosystem, has raised $15 million, its team told TechCrunch exclusively. The protocol is being built by Aave, a web3 technology firm, that allows users to lend and borrow crypto tokens from one another, among other things (Aave has raised a known $49 million to date.) The protocol is trying to integrate the best of the web as we know it, but with a focus on the new innovations web3 to make the internet “more equitable, fair and democratic for social media networks,” Aave CEO Stani Kulechov said.. Kulechov said it’s important that future infrastructure for internet and social media networks isn’t owned by large entities like Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. When there’s a powerful incumbent, it creates less say for users and less choice as well, not just in web3 or on the internet, but in any industry. The goal of the newly-flush Lens Protocol is to allow individual users to have more control over their data, and how it …