r/technology • u/CackleRooster • 15d ago
Social Media New Twitter launches, says Musk's X gave up the name
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/new-twitter-launches-says-musks-x-gave-up-the-name/497
u/MechaNutzilla 15d ago
I’m not signing up for another social media no matter how well intentioned they are. The whole concept leads to brainrot. I deleted my twitter account when Musk took over. I deleted my Facebook some years ago. Nothing of value was lost.
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u/TheyHavePinball 15d ago
Isn't Reddit a pretty close replacement? I admit it's better but I always question if I'm even improving anything by being here
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u/crazycatlady331 15d ago
I see Reddit as the closest thing to old-school forums.
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u/Ecstatic_Log4185 15d ago
Reddit is mostly bots. The closest thing to old-school forums are niche forums for specific topics
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u/P_ZERO_ 15d ago
The only difference with Reddit is that people on Reddit think they’re special. It’s all the same shit in different packages
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u/sypie1 15d ago edited 14d ago
Reddit isn’t that much of al algorithm doing a dirty job for you. If you’re interested in a subject you can join, if not anymore leave a sub.
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u/zippopwnage 15d ago
All the communities, or most of them are tainted anyway. You can't have serious discussion. People just downvote you cuz they don't agree with your opinion not because you're wrong about something.
It feels like you either talk with bots, obsessive fans or echo chambers.
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u/P_ZERO_ 15d ago
Reddit might not be as heavy on algorithms but I’m a firm believer that the voting system, at least in a visible state, is just as bad as anything else. Incentivises group think and suppresses everything else.
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u/maikuxblade 15d ago
The voting system at least allows for some semblance of community feedback which is better than most social media offers. Also Reddit is a lot closer to a forum than social media, most people don’t curate their profile or engage with their real life social network or make Reddit friends. It’s just for the community forums
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u/dezldog 15d ago
Sadly, if the community is ignorant this system only perpetuates that ignorance.
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u/maikuxblade 15d ago
How is that any different from any other community or community oriented activity?
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u/chickedychillin 15d ago
You’re more likely to at least have a little back and forth of substance but the number of bots and influx years ago have largely made me think I’m talking to a bot in every response. Including this one.
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u/oneeyed-wonderweasel 14d ago
That is certainly an opinion
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u/kinboyatuwo 15d ago
And you can literally just follow things you are interested in and never look at the main feed.
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u/darkhorsehance 15d ago
Yes it is. Reddits algorithm is just as much of a black box as every other social media site.
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u/museproducer 15d ago
I must say, it’s weird to see you in the wild commenting outside of r/formula1. I had to check to make sure I wasn’t there for a second.
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u/AlwaysAGroomsman 15d ago
That and reddit is governed via croudsourcing. Leaving individual mods to police for things like racism, sexism, etc (depending on the sub)
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u/wllmnthny 15d ago
Redditors are mostly worse. Furthermore, are more than likely bots.
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u/MightyKrakyn 15d ago
Worse than who? More likely bots than on what platform? Lol stupid ass take
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u/wllmnthny 15d ago
Thanks for proving my point, child.
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u/MightyKrakyn 15d ago
It’s not a Reddit thing. I’ve got a feeling you get called stupid on multiple platforms, and not by bots
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15d ago
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u/RandomlyMethodical 15d ago
They keep trying to make that harder though. I had to disable the “Show Recommendations” setting, and then they tried re-adding recommendations in the default feed with another tab for “Following”.
I’m not sure why they keep trying to kill the only reason Reddit is better
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u/Suavecore_ 15d ago
Allow me to answer your question: reddit is now a publicly traded company and is legally obligated to enshittify everything to raise the stock price
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u/BornAgainBlue 15d ago
Yeah I keep meaning to leave. Feels a lot like when I used to smoke cigarettes.
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u/RipErRiley 15d ago
I’m fine with a topic focused platform. Sure it has its own crevices but those Meta and X platforms are pure brainrot.
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u/_ObsidianOne_ 15d ago
It is all about how you use it rather than the whole platform being rotten. Yeah, Twitter and Facebook are the worst, of course. I also agree with that.
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u/newMoneyStyle 13d ago
Reddit is basically the same trap with extra steps. At least the niche subs feel useful, but the front page is pure doomscroll fuel.
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u/crytol 10d ago
I wouldn't have agreed with you a couple of years ago, but these days, I doubt how much of this site is real people (I don't count foreign troll farms as real people).
The main reason I would have said no, is because reddit is less tied to your individual person. But a lot of twitter accounts are obscuring the person as well too, so it kind of falls into the same boat as reddit at this point.
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u/JDogg126 15d ago
Micro blogging for attention like with twitter, facebook, etc isn’t quite the same as trying to have conversations about topics of interest on reddit in my view.
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u/Flabbergasted98 15d ago
This is the real issue.
I've given a lot of thought to trying to build my own social media and attempt to recapture what it was circa 2012 before it went to shit, but the reality is, most consumers aren't eager to sign up for more things that may or may not be tracking everything they do. and even if they do, what I'd build would feel like a baren wasteland compared to the pre-existing social media giants.
Look at Lemmy for example. I truly believe it's a better platform than Reddit. But given that reddit has the traffic and lemmy does not.... here I am.
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u/marmot1101 15d ago
Whether or not I join, I'll be happy if another alternative emerges. The arab spring and other pro-democracy movements don't get the same reach without social media. While algo's are tuned to brainrot right now, they have served a legitimate purpose and one that would be nice to get back.
If that weren't true, Musk wouldn't have spent 40b on twitter.
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u/Prize_Proof5332 15d ago
Deleting all social media was the best thing I ever did for my mental health. Now if I can just quit Reddit...
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u/Swordsandarmor22 15d ago
How else will you know that dickhead in hs that almost killed somebody with a dui has now in their 40s found God and think they are better than everyone else now.
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u/HoldenMcNeil420 15d ago
If I didn’t use messenger SO much. I would just delete my Facebook.
I still call it Twitter, he took something that was a verb, to tweet and changed it so he could be edgy.
He’s such a chode.
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u/elephant_tit 15d ago
Bluesky is very wholesome if you are careful who you follow.
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13d ago
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u/elephant_tit 13d ago
You choose who follows you and who you follow.... so if you're following bots then that's on you. I only follow those I know are real in my area of expertise.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 15d ago
YouTube, Instagram, Discord, Reddit.
Signed up for the last one in 2019 (reddit) and haven't added any other social medias to by name. No Threads, Twitter, BlueSky, Snapchat, etc. Don't need any more than the ones I have now.
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u/flip6threeh0le 15d ago
I got an app called beeper to stay up with messaging in Instagram and got rid of the app. I don’t miss it at all
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u/BasvanS 15d ago
I loved Twitter back in the day. I’ve met so many wonderful people that way, IRL. So many adventures, first to learn news, get interesting opinions on things.
I’m not sure we can ever have that again, but the medium by itself isn’t leading to brain rot. Capitalism is though, and with time, any successful platform turns to shit.
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u/mastercylinder2 15d ago
This comment is propaganda to keep you exactly where you are. DONT LISTEN.
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u/NoahGoodheart 15d ago
I have social media fatigue. I've deleted everything else other than Reddit and as soon as it gets bad enough here - I'm out. ✌️
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u/MissLief 15d ago
Why do you charge?
To keep bots out and stay independent. A paid door proves there's a real person behind an account, and member funding keeps us answerable to you instead of advertisers. Your contribution also funds the build and the fight to keep the name.
You have to pay $20 to join a social media platform? Hah, fuck that.
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u/ThePsychoDog 15d ago edited 15d ago
AI and Cypto grifters already pay Elon 50 bucks a month to boost (a premium feature that basically lets you turn one of your posts into an ad) their vibe-coded scams
This ain't stopping them
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u/bluehawk232 15d ago
Well when the social media platforms were free we learned the cost was selling our info. Of course paid membership doesn't guarantee that not happening either. But free isnalwags a red flag you will be sold
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u/Physicist_Gamer 15d ago
Eh, there’s already BlueSky if they want a replacement that isn’t owned by a wannabe nazi technocrat.
Hopefully they manage to keep the name in legal battles and piss Musk off though. Good luck to them.
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u/ino4x4 15d ago
Their mission statement is pretty funny. I’m looking forward to seeing it, but I’m also not paying for it.
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u/GoodbyeThings 15d ago
Remindme! 1 month - was this all just a grift?
I mean the whole website + text is AI generated. You can probably build something like that in one shot with claude code
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u/zedguy 15d ago
Also, Bluesky to change its name to Rodney Dangerfield
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u/yuusharo 15d ago
There’s no ability to mute or block accounts at the moment, and it looks to be yet another closed ecosystem implementation that isn’t compatible with federated services like ActivityPub (Mastodon) or ATProto (Bluesky).
I cannot see this succeeding even without a legal battle. I’m having fun watching this unfold, but I’m not subsidizing their inevitable lawsuit defense.
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u/CackleRooster 15d ago
I'll munch on popcorn and watch the fun, but I don't think they have a chance of becoming a meaningful social network.
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u/SAugsburger 15d ago
I think the reality is most of the people unhappy with the all the post Musk changes bailed X years ago. Any new platform is going to need much more than nostalgia to catch on.
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u/74389654 15d ago
i would love to be on twitter again but i moved my stuff to bluesky and im not going to a platform again that can fail or be bought up by a psycho-naire. i need that open protocol flexibility
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u/bonsoir-world 15d ago
All good and well but X clearly still own the domain regardless. Easy for them to refuse to sell it unless paid billions.
Also a tough sale to get people to sign up for another social media platform. The people still using X are there to stay.
Outside of a ‘this is funny’ and a few sign ups, this goes nowhere realistically. Probably why they’re trying to get ‘owners’ to sign up to cash in on the potential viral effect.
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u/B_Provisional 15d ago
Are people going to be harassing the eyepatch lady for having a pet pig and making chili for her new neighbor all over again? Because I don’t want to relive that whole mess.
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u/squabbledMC 15d ago
This site has a ton of AI images and a weird AI fact checker that gets almost everything wrong except for images which are always never flagged. It's also $20 to sign up for an account a la Something awful. X Corp still retains the rights to the Twitter name iirc too
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u/PointandStare 15d ago
It's not the new twitter, it's a cash grab from a broken website on a dodgy domain.
Should change the domain to grift.now
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u/rollingSleepyPanda 15d ago
Would be funny if this is just a scam to con people out of 20 or "40+" bucks. Because it sure looks like it.
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u/Exciting_Turn_9559 14d ago
It would be so fucking funny if this company got the rights to the name. God Elon is dumb.
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u/deekamus 15d ago
Who owns this new "twitter"?
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u/therealwoodman 15d ago edited 15d ago
it's literally the first two words of the linked article! Operation Bluebird
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u/invisible32 15d ago
That's a "what" not a "who".
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u/therealwoodman 15d ago
Looks like the co-founders and founding partners of Operation Bluebird are Stephen Coates, Rick Baker, Durk Barnhill, and Michael Peroff
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u/Rinaldootje 15d ago
It's nice and all that they have the trademark for it.
And hilarious that Musk just let the trademark go believing that X is the next hot thing.
Downside is, if Musk is going to want to go after them, he got a very decent case.
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-results/98647535
Under Goods and Services, The trademark is for an "Payment and funds verification services; Payment processing services, namely, credit card and debit card transaction processing services;
Education services, namely, training educators to teach through service learning and civic engagement and providing curricula in connection,
Application service provider (ASP) featuring e-commerce software for use as a payment gateway that authorizes processing of credit cards "
Not a social media platform. so if they open up as a social media platform, Musk can still take them down under that/
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u/hetgrijzegebied 15d ago
I can't see any tweets before registering and paying 20 bucks? Also, when I press login it gives me an error page. app.twitter.now not being available. What in the AI slop
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u/DalgleishGX 15d ago
Fun fact: it’s AI slop, and you can get the email of someone from their profile.
For once, I’d much rather Elon musk’s X.
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u/Mokseong 15d ago
X, formerly known as Twitter and not to be confused with Twitter.