(Paris) Since the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk at the end of October 2022, several networks competing with the blue bird have hatched, the latest of which Threads, an offshoot of Meta (Facebook, Instagram) has attracted more than 30 million subscribers in less than 24 hours.
Faced with the declarations and transformations sometimes erratically initiated by the billionaire, several million people have indeed decided to migrate to other platforms.
Still, the adventure is sometimes less pleasant for Internet users, who now have an additional alternative option.
Threads, Zuckerberg’s network
Billed as Instagram’s “written conversations app”, Threads will very likely exacerbate the rivalry between billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
This newcomer to the web looks like a stripped down version of Twitter. Its users can like, comment and share posts and use the same profile as their Instagram account. Unlike Twitter, there are no keywords and it is not possible – at this stage at least – to filter content with a Tweetdeck type device.
Threads’ compatibility project with other Twitter rivals like Mastodon was put on hold, but not abandoned.
The app, which launched at 7 p.m. EST Wednesday in 100 countries, had 30 million accounts shortly after 11 a.m. EST on Thursday.
Mastodon, the community network
Unknown to the general public before the thunderous and controversial takeover of the Bluebird, Mastodon quickly experienced a spike in popularity.
Created in 2016 by German developer Eugen Rochko, the site presents itself as “a free and open source decentralized social network” without any advertising and where the preservation of private data is sacrosanct.
Like Twitter, Internet users can post short messages, but each newcomer must register on a server according to their areas of interest.
There are several thousand of these independent servers called instances, sort of communities around a theme, which establish their own rules.
But the experience displeased some, put off by the unintuitive aspect of the platform, by the difficulty of creating an account or by the poor response time of the service.
Mr. Rochko had said ten days after the effective takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk that Mastodon had exceeded one million active monthly users, but this remained far from the approximately 200 million daily users of Twitter.
Bluesky, the baby bird of the co-founder of Twitter
This network, created by the co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey, is very popular in Silicon Valley, but it is still in the development phase and is accessible only by invitation, a very sought-after ticket at the moment.
The company told CNBC that it saw a record level of posts on Saturday after Elon Musk announced plans to temporarily limit the number of posts Twitter users can read daily.
Bluesky visually and practically resembles Twitter because its designers do not want defectors to feel out of place.
This platform was designed in 2019 on the sidelines of Twitter, originally with the aim of creating a decentralized version where Internet users – and not society – would have more control over their personal data and over the moderation process. .
It also uses a device called AT Protocol to maintain an identity across multiple platforms.
According to its website, Bluesky exceeded 50,000 subscribers at the end of April. One of his reps told CNBC that more than 58,000 people tuned in over the weekend.
Substack Notes
In retaliation, Elon Musk earlier this year blocked links and search results for Substack after the blogging site for writers launched Substack Notes.
Like Twitter, the latter allows authors to post short messages including links and images while trying to lead users to paid content.
The billionaire has since reversed his decision, emphasizing the ways Twitter can help its users monetize their content.
Substack Notes has drawn criticism for its still deficient content moderation system. Its turnover comes from a drain on the income generated by the pages of the authors and not from the number of views or advertising.
In development or established
Other microblog platforms or written discussions exist, devoted in particular to particular affinities.
Thus networks like Gab, Parler or Truth Social – a platform launched by former US President Donald Trump – presented themselves as conservative alternatives to Twitter even before its takeover.
Discord is mainly used in the world of video games, with chat rooms accessible by invitation.
In the register of more generalist platforms, there is the young shoot T2 (name used to evoke a Twitter 2), founded by former Twitter and Google employees, in the test phase, is getting closer to Bluesky and the blue bird network , but remains, for the moment, confidential.