Twitter users have reported facing major issues after the platform's owner Elon Musk announced new restrictions on how many tweets can be viewed per day. Users are also now required to log in to view tweets.
While Musk has claimed that the temporary measure was taken to address "extreme levels of data scraping" and "system manipulation", others have speculated whether the limits are a result of a self-inflicted Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack.
Regardless of the why, it seems that the social media platform is imploding in real time with the temporary cap reportedly making it harder for Google to show tweets in search results and changes at the API-level breaking the Tweetdeck tool, among other dire consequences.
The uncertainty of Twitter's future has sparked an urgent need for a platform that has everyone there. We take a look at such upstarts and their potential to be the new Twitter.
IG Threads
Instagram’s Twitter lookalike app called Threads is expected to launch on Thursday, 6 July. Parent company Meta has even launched a website for the countdown of the app.
The app is described on the App Store as "a platform where communities can come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow."
Bluesky
Bluesky was released for iOS users in February this year and for Android users on 20 April, as an invite-only beta version. It is the brainchild of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and was developed alongside Twitter, hence the Twitter-like interface.
But unlike Twitter, Bluesky is based on a decentralised AT protocol. It has around 180,000 users with a much larger number of 1.9 million on the waitlist.
"The goal of the AT Protocol is to allow modern social media and public conversation online to work more like the early days of the web, when anyone could put up a blog or use RSS to subscribe to several blogs. We believe this will unlock a new era of experimentation and innovation in social media," the official website reads.
Mastodon
Mastodon is another decentralised social network, which is free and open source.
It could be a viable alternative to Twitter as users can publish links, pictures, texts, video. Users can also join servers, follow one another, and do anything you’d usually do on Twitter.
Users can also create their own server, over which they would have full control. It has an anti-advertisement base, so advertisements would not be pushed towards users, but users can make servers an advertising space on their own.
However, Mastodon has been criticised as having an interface that is not very user friendly and has a complex setup.
Post.
Post seems like it could be the perfect fit for newsreaders and journalists. It has no word limit and features comments, reactions, retweets, and even lets users tip other users.
It is publisher-focused, meaning publishers can generate revenue through the content that they post. Post's plus point is its clean interface, unlike traditional news websites that are flooded with advertisements.
T2
T2 is an invite-only beta social media platform, but it’s contents on the site are visible. It has been developed by former Google and Twitter employees. However, the platform only allows 280 characters in a post and also lacks features like direct messaging, trends, bookmarks, etc.
Artifact
Artifact is a personalised news app that was launched by Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in Februrary this year.
The app has been created to provide an immersive news experience, based on a user's interests with the help of machine learning. But Artifact's social features such as its feed and messaging option are still in the works.
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