Article originally appeared on www.washingtonexaminer.com.
The multitude of alternatives to X, formerly known as Twitter, have struggled to gain traction to compete even as X seems to be struggling to stay afloat in the year since Elon Musk’s takeover.
Following Musk’s purchase of the platform, many users attempted an exodus and sought a platform worthy of their attention. Some established networks, such as Mastodon, saw increased downloads, while others launched alternatives, such as Instagram’s Threads. While the rival platforms regularly see surges when X makes design decisions that people dislike, they’ve yet to draw away the hundreds of millions of monthly users that X still has.
Here’s how X’s clone attempts look a year after Musk acquired the company.
Mastodon
Mastodon, a decentralized social network that allows users to make their own private social networks, was presented by many Musk critics as an alternative to Twitter in the initial months of Musk’s takeover. That push caused its user base to surge to about 2.5 million in December 2022. However, that number dropped to 1.4 million in January 2023.
| View full article |
