After taking Twitter Inc private for $44 billion, Elon Musk has started making changes to the social media platform that have irked some users, making them look for alternatives.
The changes include Musk's decision's to charge for user verification, as well as his opinions on content moderation.
Here are some platforms that are alternatives to Twitter:
Mastodon
Launched in 2016, Mastodon is an open source software for a decentralized social network, with several features that are similar to Twitter.
It is free of advertisements, has a 500-character limit, as well as custom emojis. Mastodon has more than a million monthly active users and added nearly half a million users since Oct. 27, Chief Executive Eugen Rochko said on Monday.
Mastodon has the look-and-feel of Twitter, with hashtags, political back-and-forth and tech banter jostling for space with memes. But while Twitter and Facebook are controlled by one authority (a company), Mastodon is installed on thousands of computer servers, largely run by volunteer administrators who join their systems together in a federation.
People swap posts and links with others on their own server — known as or Mastodon “instance” — and also, almost as easily, with users on other servers across the growing network.
Cohost
Cohost is an ad-free social media platform. Its developers also said there's on tracking of users on the platform. Posts made on the platform fall in a timeline that goes vertically, much like Twitter.
It was built from the ground up by a small team of developers and designers. "No ads, no tracking. Forever." Cohost also promises to never sell user data, sell ads, or sell the company "to anyone who might change these policies to make a quick buck."
The co-host feature allows the host to share hosting privileges with another user, allowing the co-host to manage the administrative side of the meeting, such as managing participants or starting/stopping the recording. The host must assign a co-host.
The company said it will charge "a few bucks a month" and will soon take tips and sell subscriptions.
Tribel Social
A self-described "grassroots social network", it is available on both Apple's App Store and Android.
The platform allows users to target an audience to enhance engagement on posts and says users can find experts on topics of discussion.
Tribel claims to be the "smarter" social network where user posts immediately reach the right audience "and you finally get the recognition you deserve for making great posts — and you can customise your news feed to easily find the breaking and trending posts you want when you want them — in any topic".
Parler
Nashville-based Parler, which has agreed to sell itself to the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, is popular with U.S. conservatives.
Founded in 2018, Parler's hands-off approach to content moderation has made it popular among users who disagree with policies of Meta Platform Inc's Facebook and Twitter.
Tumblr
Tumblr is a social media website that was launched in 2007 which allows users to post long-form blog-style content with media elements such as photos and GIFs.
It also allows users to chat with each other much like Twitter's direct messaging function.
Truth Social
Founded by former U.S. President Donald Trump, Truth Social is a platform favored by conservatives and was recently launched on Apple Inc's iOS and Google-owned Android. Truth Social is only available to users in the United States.
Clubhouse
The platform which hosts live audio chatrooms gained popularity at the peak of the pandemic.
The app allows users to chat with people across the world in what it calls "Rooms" where someone can start an audio chatroom and discuss topics of interest.
It does not follow an invite-only system for users to access the platform.
