After Elon Musk became the owner of Twitter, many users pondered what the future of the platform would look like. Well, many believe that the platform may be “dead,” and no, I’m not kidding. On Nov. 17, the hashtag #RipTwitter was trending after a surge of employees were fired during layoffs or hit with an ultimatum to stay or leave the company. Musk warned employees that if they chose to stay, work would be intense and require “long hours of work.” On Nov. 18, the hashtag #TwitterIsDead was just as popular. Users have gone as far to tweet out complete step-by-step guides on how to deactivate your accounts, announcing they’ll be making the jump to new platforms in the wake of Twitter’s growing decline. What Twitter alternatives are out there, and how do they differentiate from the original site? Let’s investigate.
Musk’s purchase of the mega-platform has left a bad taste in many users’ mouths, and the list of reasons as to why just keeps on growing. As one of the richest men in the world, many have criticized Musk’s behavior, businesses, and overall sense of morality, and purchasing Twitter might have just been the icing on the top of the cake for some.
He released a public statement about acquiring Twitter where he explained, “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important for the future of civilization to have a common digital town square.” However, this may not be the case, because before officially purchasing the social site, he was on the verge of losing a lawsuit that would ultimately make him buy it. Whatever the reason, many public figures and Musk’s own employees have been very vocal about their disapproval for his taking over the company. Some celebrities just outright don’t support him, whereas others were angry that Musk proposed a $20 (recently lowered to $8) subscription fee in order to keep their blue verified check marks.
Either way, it looks like #TwitterIsDead, or heading towards it, and users are flooding other social platforms to fill in the place that Twitter once held. You may have heard of some of these sites before or are being completely introduced to a few of them. Without further ado, let’s take a look at six of the Twitter alternatives that users have already made the leap towards.
- Tumblr
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If you were on social media during the early 2010s, then you know how iconic Tumblr truly is. The site was a niche area on the internet where everyone could find a subgroup that they aligned with, indulging in many forms of content via photos, music, GIFS, and other media throughout the platform. It’s been regarded as the original blogging site, and it would be ludicrous to not accredit Tumblr with the origin of many different aesthetics that were popular in the early 2010s.
The platform suffered a blow after Yahoo! Inc. purchased it in 2013, eventually implementing a “safe mode” feature in 2018 that changed the scope of the site for good. In short, it censored a lot of sexual and nude content that was present before “safe mode” was a concept. However, with the predicted death of Twitter, we might just see Tumblr make its long awaited comeback!
Tumblr even just announced that they would be adjusting their regulations on nudity with the new implementation of Community Labels, “welcom[ing] a broader range of expression, creativity, and art on Tumblr, including content depicting the human form.” This shift could not have come at a better time for the website, and on Nov. 17, Tumblr reportedly crashed due to the amount of users hopping on and joining.
Honestly, any excuse I have to reminisce on my early middle school days and blast G-Eazy’s “Tumblr Girls,” I’ll take. Welcome back, Tumblr!
- Discord
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You’ve probably heard of Discord, especially because the platform is often utilized for college classes. Discord is another site that Twitter users are hopping over to, in part because users have the ability to connect their two accounts together. Like I mentioned, college students typically use Discord to chat about their classes, but the website has so many more features. The app allows for users to communicate with each other via voice, video, and text chat. Discord is also known as a platform to bring together gamers, but it has much more purpose than just that. Subgroups of different fandoms and passionate groups use the platform a lot, and many tune in to watch as their favorite influencers go live.
- Mastodon
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One emerging site might be the closest recreation to Twitter out there: It’s Mastodon. Mastodon’s format is incredibly close to that of Twitter, except for one main discrepancy, which you’ll run into when creating your own account. Mastodon requires users to join a pre-existing server, also called an instance, to kick off the signup process. After searching and finding a server you’re keen to join, you can join (or create your own if you’re not seeing what you want), and you might notice that the platform resembles that of Twitter.
If you’re just leaving Twitter, Mastodon allows users to utilize debirdify or Fedifinder linked with your old account to find accounts you used to follow now on the new platform. There are many smaller niche communities that you can connect with on the platform, something that has contributed to its growing popularity. On Nov. 7, Mastodon’s CEO Ugen Rochko announced that the platform had seen the addition of almost half a million new users.
- CounterSocial
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CounterSocial has a few similarities to Twitter, but I’m sure you’ll notice that there are some key differences between the two. The Joker, who is the founder of CounterSocial, created the platform with the intent of blocking out trolls, fake news, advertisers, and foreign influence ops. Posts are shown in a chronological order, and users have the ability to pin columns or formulate their own “watchlists” for varying users, topics, or hashtags.
- Hive Social
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This platform might just be a blend of all the popular social media platforms ever, and users are quickly signing up for it. On Nov. 18, Hive Social announced that their server was down from the surge of users that were signing on and up, with a reported jump from 40,000 new users to 80,000 in just one day. Of the main features on Hive Social, you’ll notice there are options to share music, text/image posts, polls, and Q&As among other content onto your profile. Upon first glance, you might think Hive Social looks like Twitter, and then Instagram, and then Spotify, and so on and so forth. It truly is a combination of all your favorite socials.
- Koo
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Koo is another site that is giving me the vibes of another social platform, specifically that of LinkedIn. Known as a microblogging platform that allows users to communicate in the language of their choice, Koo is known for cultivating communication between people via photos and text. I really can’t get over just how similar Koo looks to LinkedIn, so if you’ve used it before, you’ll definitely understand the layout of this new platform.