A list of the social media sites trying to compete with Twitter

Meta takes on Twitter

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has set its gaze on poaching disenchanted Twitter users with its new microblogging app, Threads.

Launch date: July 6, 2023

Pros: Instagram users will be able to login with their existing credentials and can immediately begin posting, reposting, sharing, and liking content.

Cons: Only time will tell. There has yet to be a fully successful Twitter rival, but Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, seems confident he can pull this off. With the number of active Twitter users dropping off, Meta is looking to strike while the iron is hot.

Enter the “Fediverse”

Founded by the German software engineer Eugen Rochko, Mastodon, a free, open-source microblogging platform, is a member of the so-called “Fediverse” (a portmanteau of “federated” and “universe”), a network of interconnected servers.

Launch date: March 2016

Pros: The platform is crowd-funded and ad-free. Control and moderation of content is decentralized, rather than concentrated in the hands of a single corporation. You can migrate your data to other servers within Mastodon and the broader Fediverse.

Cons: If you’re looking for a platform that functions like Twitter, the Mastodon social media experience is somewhat different (which is not necessarily a con). When you sign up, you join a server (called an “instance”), which resembles a forum and is based around a shared interest.

Dorsey goes for decentralization

Back in 2019, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO, assembled a team to work on Bluesky, a decentralized social media protocol. The platform’s open-source code is intended to give users more autonomy and the ability to move their data between different networks.

Launch date: February 2023

Pros: If you’re satisfied with Twitter’s functionality—posting, replies, retweets (technically “reskeets” on this platform, combining “retweet” and “sky”)—then Bluesky will feel familiar and intuitive, with the bonus of data portability.

Cons: The platform still lacks DMs and the ability to make lists. It’s also still invite-only, as the platform slowly works to build up its communities. (That could also be a pro, depending on how you look at it.) Bluesky is incompatible (at the moment) with ActivityPub, the most popular standard in the Fediverse.

A Black-owned platform for spilling the tea

Sign-ups for Spill, created by two former Twitter employees, picked up over the July 4 weekend. Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell and DeVaris Brown, the founders, have pitched the platform as a space for diverse communities and “culture drivers.” Internet-watchers are calling Spill—as in “spill the tea,” an euphemism for “gossip”—the new Black Twitter.

Launch date: June 2023

Pros: Spill is a social media platform crafted by and for communities of color, an appealing marketing point as Musk continues his “free speech” crusade on Twitter.

Cons: New signups have been paused at the moment, as interest in the app has surged. A beta version is currently being tested and is only available if one receives an invitation code from an existing user.

Home of the Besties

Buzz around Hive Social, founded by the Romanian developer Raluca Pop, picked up around the time of Musk’s Twitter buyout in November 2022, pushing its users (called “Besties” in Hive lingo) to over one million. The free microblogging platform markets itself as “focusing on the simplicity of social media” and has attracted a Gen Z user base.

Launch date: October 2019

Pros: Hive’s feed is automatically chronological, instead of being tailored for you by an algorithm—good news for those sick of the “For you” tab on Twitter. Hive combines elements of Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. The platform has also taken a strong stance against racism and bigotry.

Cons: In December, the app was forced to shut down due to security issues, and the viability of its business model is also unclear.Currently Hive charges to feature extra music tracks on your profile, a la MySpace, which will find either annoying or a charming throwback.

Hacktivist tries to fix social media

A hacker-activist known as “The Jester” founded CounterSocial (“CoSo”) with the express mission of targeting disinformation, trolls, and online propaganda. The site began as a Mastodon instance but later left the Fediverse following a controversial move to ban IP addresses from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Pakistan. The Jester’s intent was supposedly to counter foreign agitprop, but Mastodon’s founder called the move “ineffective and unethical.”

Launch date: November 2017

Pros: The platform’s emphasis on authenticity, community, and good faith interaction will appeal to the jaded social media user. The site also emphasizes user privacy and security.

Cons: The site is laid out in several consecutive columns, reminiscent of TweetDeck, which might come off as busy to some (there is a single-column view for those who want a Twitter-esque layout). If you want to access additional site features, a Pro account costs $4.99 per month. CounterSocial is no longer part of the Fediverse.

An audio-first experience

Clubhouse is a social audio platform where you can tune in to participate in conversations by joining different chatrooms. The startup was founded by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth in 2019. It sparked a rush on other platforms to develop their own audio-based social features.

Launch date: April 2020

Pros: If you’re a big fan of Twitter Spaces, and like having audio at the center of your social media experience, this is the platform for you. Your feed is called the “Hallway,” each conversation space is a “Room,” and you can even create your own “Club” centered around a topic of interest.

Cons: If audio is too narrow an experience for you, Clubhouse is probably not your jam. The app has also had privacy concerns flagged in the past. Be warned, there is no protection against others recording your conversations.

Trump was bitter about Twitter

This alt-right social media platform was founded by the former US president Donald Trump after he was banned from Twitter and Facebook in 2021. It is a carbon copy of Twitter but fully populated with rightwing netizens. In this alternate universe, posts are called “truths,” and reposts “re-truths.”

Launch date: February 2022

Pros: If you want to see the latest rants from Trump, Truth Social is his new pulpit.

Cons: Bigotry, racism, and rightwing disinformation abounds.