What’s the flight plan?
You may not want to linger at Twitter for long. But where will you roost? A quick guide
Is Twitter over? And is it going over to (or deeper into) the dark side? Bot Sentinel, which uses machine learning to analyse trends, indicates that 1 million users deactivated their Twitter accounts between October 27 and November 1. Among those who’ve flown the nest are supermodel Gigi Hadid, actor Whoopi Goldberg, comic-book creator Erik Larsen and retired wrestler Mick Foley.
Most users have been spooked by Twitter’s swift drop in content moderation, the spike in aggressive tweets, and the reinstating of the handles of Donald Trump and Kanye West, and for anti-semitism. Twitter has also lost 100 of its top advertisers.
But where does one roost instead?
For now, nothing comes close to Twitter’s real-time buzz. Instagram is more visual. Reddit is more of a modern-day discussion forum. Linkedin is for professional connections (and showcasing epiphanies achieved while peeling a soft-boiled egg, for instance). Facebook…well, who knows what Facebook is trying to do?
Those who leave have several decisions to make. Do they delete all their tweets before exiting? Or download account data, including all tweets, and fly off with their archive? Twitter has made the latter a bit trickier.
For those who choose to purge, automated tweet deletion services such as Semiphemeral, Tweet Delete and Tweeteraser can help. Sign in with your Twitter account, and you can delete tweets older than 30 days, select tweets, delete direct messages and more. You may have to pay a premium subscription fee. Tweet Delete, for instance, charges $14.99 for unlimited deletes.
Meta might seem like it has alternatives, but none that can directly replace Twitter. You’d be scattering your online presence across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
Also, none offers real-time updates.
Google? Nothing to see there. The company shuttered its last social media product, Google+, in early 2019 and there is no word on whether it is considering another try.
If enough of your friends are willing to make the switch, Hive Social could provide familiar surroundings. Think of the threeyear-old platform as a mix of the Twitter timeline and a bit of Instagram’s Discover feature, with a dollop of Facebook Messenger. It has a long way to go in terms of reach, but momentum seems to be building. On November 18, Hive Social reported a server issue due to the sudden rush from new signups — 110,000 new users added in one day.
With Post, you’ll need patience. Founder Noam Bardin is trying to replicate the Twitter experience, with a few tweaks. Post will not limit characters per update. In addition to social-media posts, micro-paywalls will allow access to premium content. The catch: Users are activated in batches. The waitlist is currently 125,000 and counting.
Heard of Mastodon? Who hasn’t. It’s the decentralised answer to Twitter. So instead of a single platform, you choose to join topicand interest-based servers (a more evolved version of the chatroom). A post on Mastodon is called a “toot”. You get up to 500 characters per toot.
Venture capitalist Benedict Evans sums up the experience in a tweet: “Suggesting Mastodon as an alternative to Twitter is like suggesting Linux as an alternative to Windows.” He’s referencing the idea that Linux software lacks the critical elements and ease of use that made Windows popular outside the tech community. But that hasn’t stopped people from stopping by. The number of monthly active users has tripled, to 1.6 million, since about October 27, when Musk took over.
Discord, another social-media platform, has no concept of “follow”. Instead, users join theme- and subject-based servers. There are about 150 million monthly active users. Beyond the social-network features, there are options of voice, video and text chat too.
Which brings us to the Thatcherian truth: There is no alternative. Or no exact alternative, at least, not yet. Post and Hive Social are well-placed as they try to keep it simple. It will take the better part of a year for any of these to scale up to Twitter’s size. And Meta or Google might just spring a surprise in the meantime.
THOSE WHO LEAVE HAVE SEVERAL DECISIONS TO MAKE. DO THEY DELETE ALL THEIR TWEETS OR DOWNLOAD ACCOUNT DATA IN AN HTML FILE FORMAT? TWITTER HAS MADE THE LATTER A BIT TRICKIER.