The Twitter Alternative Battle Royale
It’s been about a month since Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter, the results of which have been just as, if not more, disastrous than predicted. Elon’s erratic behavior has driven away several users and advertisers, and he’s unsurprisingly gone back on promises to remain in the center of the political spectrum and convene a council to make moderation decisions. He’s allowed for some of the biggest internet freaks to return, like Jordan Peterson, The Babylon Bee, Donald Trump, and others I dare not name, while those on the left have faced more suspensions.
Plenty of users have yet to leave, like me, because seeing a social media platform come crashing down is akin to an old message board that descends into ruin as the administrator gets drunk with power. It’s a car crash difficult to look away from. But this is a good time to start making a plan while at least observing other social media platforms. Alternatives have emerged or gained prominence in the last month, though all of them have their current issues.
The most talked about one in recent memory is Hive, a platform that takes equal inspiration from Twitter and Instagram by focusing on discussions among users and the posting of music and images. Several gaming types, including video game press members and gaming companies, were quick to make accounts when registrations revved up a week ago.
The site has a slick design, but it’s currently exclusive to mobile apps, though the organizers have plans to launch a web version in the near future. They also don’t allow porn, which… well, what’s the point of a Twitter alternative without that, huh? Doomed, I’m telling you. The biggest concern is that it’s only run by two people, and it’s tough to have faith that it will hold up as a platform people can regularly use unless they can hire plenty of help quickly.
Post is another one I’ve seen mentioned, which gained a following among celebrities like Kathy Griffin after she was suspended for impersonating Elon on Twitter (and later reinstated), and political and news types like Representative Adam Kinzinger and others. The service, however, is only available through the web, ironically the opposite problem Hive has. It’s also clear the owners want the service to be used for Serious Business Only. The site said in its mission statement that bullying people by their net worth (i.e. rich people) is not allowed, though they removed the section after a heap of criticism. Hilarious. The platform’s biggest funder also don’t have the best history, to put it lightly. Those two points ensure that it will lose if they continue to make stumbles like this.
Mastodon has actually been around for a while, noted as a Twitter alternative from when the place first started becoming notably toxic, a more innocent era where the biggest poster was both running for president and was in the Oval Office. It doesn’t quite qualify as a replacement, though, thanks to the need for users to join specific groups and sections known as “instances,” which actually gives it a commonality with Reddit. It’s only complicated for anyone going into it looking specifically for the new Twitter. I’ve seen it described as the Linux of social media services in the last month, which could not be a more apt comparison. There are a number of added complications here, but that might — might — make it billionaire proof. Just make sure you know what to expect before going in.
cohost was one of the first alternatives discussed immediately after Elon completed the Twitter purchase, though its microblogging style is more along the lines of Tumblr. The design is nice enough, and the blogs are easy to read on individual pages. It won’t have the style of thoughts being quick and to the point as Twitter did, but the above alternatives have shown how that won’t be easy to replicate.
In addition to account creation currently being difficult thanks to the influx of new users, cohost’s biggest problem is the lack of discoverability for content. A hallmark of a successful social media service is the easy ability to find new users with even vaguely similar interests and follow them, thus expanding the individual footprints of those users. Discoverability, however, is currently poor on cohost, making it very difficult to find new users and content for anyone unaware of precisely what they’re looking for beforehand. If they can fix both these issues quickly, it could become a good service even if it’s not a certified Twitter replacement.
The last one I’ve seen mentioned is… Tumblr? Again? Tumblr was a very good place with excellent discoverability until Yahoo purchased the platform in 2013 for $1.1 billion. Then-CEO Marisa Meyer promised that the company would not “screw it up.” They, in fact, proceeded to “screw it up” after making a series of terrible decisions after the purchase was completed, the ban of pornography being the chief among them. The service following its decimation was sold for a mere $3 million. The service still exists these days, and has made a half-step towards allowing pornographic content by allowing nudity and discussion of works with sexual content again, though content with outright intercourse remains banned. There’s at least a slither of hope that they’ll get back into the groove of things again.
This battle royale should make it clear that there won’t be a quick and definitive home to gather a still-impending significant influx of Twitter refugees for when the service gets really bad. Twitter is indeed well on its way to an even deeper cesspit given the recent posts Elon has made, the horrendously inane decisions being made behind the scenes, and the kinds of accounts being unbanned. And that’s not getting into the slew of inane posts made just today. It appears to be against hope to expect a surefire dominant alternative to Twitter to emerge soon, between the five services explained above or, goodness, another one that could emerge at any point. But one of them needs to be crowned as the Chosen One with swiftness. Twitter isn’t getting any better.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
