According to the BBC, Meta has showed staff designs for a text-based social network aimed to compete with Twitter.
It may allow users to follow accounts they currently follow on Meta’s image-sharing program, Instagram.
It may also help them to gain followers via decentralized networks such as Mastodon.
A Meta representative acknowledged to the BBC that the platform was in the works.
“We’re looking into creating a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates,” they explained.
“We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”
Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer, stated that the platform was being coded. The tech titan hopes to deploy it shortly, though no specific date was mentioned. Some speculate that it might happen as soon as the end of June.
Screenshots of the app have leaked online and have been given internally to employees, presumably giving a sense of how the app would look.
According to sources within the company, the leaked screenshots are authentic. If they are, anyone who has spent time on Twitter will recognize the layout of this new site.
The text-based network, codenamed P92, may prove to be a more formidable competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter than BlueSky or Mastodon.
While both have attracted disillusioned Twitter users, it is difficult to start again on a new social network and develop a community.
However, the Instagram community is massive. Meta claims to have nearly two billion users, far outnumbering Twitter’s 300 million, yet its stats are no longer verifiable.
If even 25% of Instagram users are persuaded to try P92 (which will certainly have a sexier name when it launches), it will overtake its older rival.
According to Meta, it draws “inspiration” from other businesses, while others are less complimentary – Stories on Facebook is inspired on a Snapchat feature, and Reels on Instagram is undeniably similar to TikTok.
Twitter has come under fire in recent months for its lack of moderation on the network, and it withdrew from the EU’s voluntary disinformation code in May.
Twitter moderation has apparently been lowered under Mr Musk, allowing for a surge in the propagation of falsehoods, according to opponents.
Mr Musk, on the other hand, claims that there is now “less misinformation rather than more” since he took charge in October 2022.
