As news sinks in that right wing supporter, Elon Musk, bought Twitter, alternatives are already seeing an influx in sign ups.
Yesterday, we reported on the big story of Elon Musk buying Twitter for $44 billion. As word spread on the platform, many users were dismayed and began looking for alternatives. This is because of fears that he would follow through on his goal of unlocking his version of “free speech” on the platform, meaning that Twitter could become another failed right wing echo chamber like Parler, Gab, Gettr, and Truth Social if he follows through with that promise like so many are thinking he would.
Indeed, right wing extremists on Twitter have been calling for those threatening to leave to be banned. What’s more, a number of them have been posting harassing comments directed at what they imagine to be “liberals”. For some, this is coming off as a precursor of what is to come for the platform.
So, the search for the big alternative to go to was on. Yesterday, we mentioned that Mastodon was trending on Twitter as well, signalling that users were seriously looking at the platform as an alternative to go to.
Now, we are seeing these alternatives report a significant influx of users. Mastodon says that they are seeing tens of thousands of signups in relatively short periods of time:
Another platform that is apparently experiencing an influx of user sign ups is known as CounterSocial. While the numbers are unknown, we do know that the official website says that the platform has shut down new signups due to the surge:
Due to an unprecedented influx of unexpected new users countersocial is currently undergoing infrastructure upgrades We expect to be back around 9PM Eastern Wednesday 27th April Apologies for the frustration
Come back soon!
As of now, we can report that Mastodon is still open for sign ups as of this writing. Very likely, the p2p nature of their servers is no doubt helping the network handle the additional load.
As for the users themselves, we do know a number of them outright quit Twitter for an alternative. A number of others have basically created their account on these platforms so they have something to go to should things go sour on Twitter. Basically, some of these accounts act as backups to their Twitter even though some of them aren’t yet leaving. Indeed, the changes Musk is hoping to make on Twitter aren’t yet made. As a result, things need to be finalized before Musk can do things like take the company private, for instance.
In all of this, we are seeing a push factor starting to work, but it’s not yet strong enough to trigger a platform killing emigration as of yet. Still, there are users already reacting to the news, so there is anticipation that things could turn bad. If this does become the business move that kills Twitter, this could be one of the biggest shifts in users we’ve ever seen – even eclipsing the move from Digg to Reddit.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
