Mark Zuckerberg vs. Elon Musk: Meta To Launch A Rival Platform to Twitter

Meta Developing New Social Media App as ‘Response To Twitter’

As revealed by Multiple sources on Thursday, June 8th, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Facebook’s parent company is developing a new text-based social media platform that is primed to compete with Twitter.

As Verge reports, one of Meta’s top executives showed employees a preview and screenshots of the in-development app. The app will be based on Instagram and will integrate with ActivityPub.

Integration with ActivityPub will allow users of the new app to take control of their accounts and followers allowing them to take them to and from other apps that also support ActivityPub.

As per the reports, the new app’s internal name is “Project 92 (P92)” and according to Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, it is “our response to Twitter.”

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“We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution.” This is a quote from Cox who was referencing Twitter’s management.

According to the BBC, a Meta Spokesperson has so far confirmed these claims. “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates,” the spokesperson said.

“We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” they added.

According to the Guardian, Cox revealed that the company was in talks with Oprah Winfrey and Dalai Lama, who have 42 and 19 million followers on Twitter, to be potential users of the platform.

Does Project 92 Stand A Chance Against Twitter?

Launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey as one of the co-founders, Twitter has grown immensely and gained recognition as one of the biggest social media platforms alongside Instagram and Facebook.

In October 2022, Elon Musk completed the acquisition of the platform for $44 billion. However, since he took over and vowed to implement “free speech” policies, the platform has been in the headlines a lot.

Mr. Musk laid off around 80% of the workforce, lost over 260 major advertisers, and saw an increase in fake posts all within the first six months of his reign. As the public bears witness to what happens to the platform, its controversies and misdoings have led to the public seeking out alternatives to the platform.

Of the variety of social media apps, Bluesky and Mastodon are some of the biggest that can be considered similar to the platform. However, while they have grown in the past few years, they are no match as of yet, to Twitter.

However, Meta’s upcoming P92 appears to be a force to be reckoned with. One thing the new app will have going for it is direct access to Meta’s massive user base.

As the BBC points out, Meta claims to have around two billion users, figures that cannot be verified. If Meta can coax just 25% of this user base, it will easily eclipse Twitter’s reported user base of around 300 million users.