Vine is officially making a comeback but it launches with one major difference
Topics: Social Media, Nostalgia, US News, Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Ellie Kemp
Featured Image Credit: Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Topics: Social Media, Nostalgia, US News, Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Vine is making a comeback - and will have one major advantage over other social media sites.
The revamped social media app will be called diVine, and it aims to bring back the nostalgic spirit of its beloved predecessor.
The popular short-video app was launched in 2012 by entrepreneurs Rus Yusupov, Dom Hofmann and Colin Kroll.
It was bought out by Jack Dorsey's Twitter four months later for a whopping $30 million.
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The site helped launch the careers of internet personalities including Logan Paul, Shawn Mendes and Lele Pons.
It was shut in 2017, however, due to a lack of monetization opportunities for even its biggest creators.
Now, Dorsey has invested $10 million in revamped app diVine from his nonprofit, And Other Stuff.
The new app has been created by one of Twitter's first ever employees, Evan Henshaw-Plath - also known as Rabble.
The revival will see some 10,000 old Vine videos from the archives restored - oh, the nostalgia!
Crucially, the app will have one major difference setting it apart from other social media sites.
It won't allow AI-generated content, instead putting the power and creativity firmly back into the hands of humans.
It's a major shift amid the ever-growing influx of AI short-form videos, encouraged by OpenAI's Sora and Elon Musk's Grok.
Speaking to Business Insider, Rabble said: "There's this bulls**t that we're seeing from Meta and OpenAI and others where they decided that somehow we're better off with all AI-created social media content. That's not where social media came from.
"Social media was social first. It's about humans and our connection, not just pretty videos."
'Pretty videos' might be putting it politely...
Rabble said diVine is his 'attempt to fight back against the ens**ttification, in code.'
Coined by author Cory Doctorow, ens**ttification is the process where online platforms degrade in quality as they shift from prioritizing user experience to maximizing profits.
Online, people are supporting the concept of AI-free social media.
"We are soooo back!" one Twitter, now X, user celebrated, as a second asked: "You mean there's a place I can be free from the assault of pure AI slop?!"
"Normalize not allowing AI-generated content on the internet in general," a third weighed in.
Back in July, current Twitter owner Musk vowed to bring back Vine 'in AI form'.
He then launched Grok AI's own video generation feature, Grok Imagine.
It allows users to create short audiovisual clips from text prompts. OpenAI then launched Sora 2 in September.
It's not yet clear when exactly diVine will launch.
The news comes as TikTok's future in the US has remained up in the air.
Earlier this year, the app faced temporary restrictions over national security worries about its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
A new deal has now been signed that would give the US more control over TikTok’s American operations.
UNILAD has contacted Meta, OpenAI and Grok for comment.