Ever since billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter last year (and made controversial moves such as laying off employees and changing verification), people have been asking what might replace it.
For months, there have rumblings that Meta – parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram – would create a direct, text-based competitor. Recently the company unveiled plans to employees according to anonymous sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Karen North, founder of the Digital Social Media Program at USC Annenberg and clinical professor in the Annenberg school of communication, joined KCBS Radio’s Eric Thomas to discuss what this might mean.
“it’s really an interesting move,” said North. “I have to say that Meta has been sort of masterful at finding features of other apps, for example, Snapchat and then embedding them into their own products like Instagram. So, this is another, you know, another move like that.”
According to Statista data, both Facebook and Instagram already have more users than Twitter. Since Musk purchased the company for $44 billion, its worth has decreased to just a third of that amount.
“The interesting thing is that right now, Elon Musk… there’s a big group of people who, you know, hate him and want to be away from him for whatever reason,” North explained. “And so there’s an opportunity to try to, you know, jump in and become the competitor to Twitter.”
Other platforms are also vying to be a replacement for the app, including Mastodon, Spoutible, and Bluesky from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Previously, Audacy reported on leaked details regarding Meta’s potential Twitter replacement. Moneycontrol first reported on the plans for the new app “codenamed P92,” and Meta later confirmed it. Reports at the time indicated it would be branded as part of Instagram, an app based primarily on photo sharing.
Per the Wall Street Journal report this week, Meta’s demo was of a standalone app Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, called it “Meta’s response to Twitter,” according to the report. He also said that creators and public figures have asked for a “a sanely run” platform and that they have been in talks with Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Llama to be users of their app.
“When you look at Meta… you’re looking at Instagram and Facebook and other products as well, and an enormous staff and enormous amount of resources,” said North of the company, which is led by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. “They have not only the resources to build it, but the presence to be have a huge publicity push to bring people over and they have money to pay influencers to come over also.”
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