Social networking alternatives for the Meta- and Musk-averse

As I write this, there are a lot of social network users who are wondering if they should look for a new home. Over at X, Elon Musk has essentially become part of the incoming Trump administration, while various changes have made the formerly popular social network a dark and forbidding forest for many of its former inhabitants.

Meanwhile, Meta’s announcement that it was abandoning third-party fact-checkers and moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas is making some Facebook and Instagram members nervous. So nervous, in fact, that while we previously included Meta’s Threads social network in this article as a possible alternative to X, we’ve pulled it — at least for now.

So, if you’re no longer feeling safe at your current social network, where do you go?

We’ve been looking into the various possibilities and have put together what is admittedly an incomplete list of some of the current alternatives to X, Facebook, and Instagram that you may want to check out if you’re thinking about leaving your current hangout.

Probably nothing will become the combined news / gossip / conversation / spam source that Twitter once was, and it may be difficult to leave the kind of friends and family place that Facebook has become. But there are a few others out there that may suit you. Here’s where to start.

While Bluesky had something of a slow start (it was only in invite mode for a while), it has since made up for it — as of early January 2025, it claimed over 25 million users, attracting a bevy of folks looking for a more independent network.

Bluesky has been developed to be a decentralized social network. In fact, it aspires to be part of the fediverse — a network of interconnected social media platforms — and the interface is very Twitter-like, which isn’t surprising since Bluesky was originally funded by Twitter itself. Bluesky is fairly easy to get around in and has been tweaked quite a bit since its introduction. You get 300 characters per post but currently can’t edit a post after it goes live. Some of the attractions include the ability to easily mute words, tags, or specific accounts, or block those accounts completely; it also offers “Starter Packs,” a feature that lets you automatically add prepackaged groups of members — say, science fiction authors or philatelists — to your feed. (You do have the option of removing any individual members of those groups.)

Bluesky is available on the web or using iOS or Android apps. It also has a variety of associated apps available, including different web and mobile clients, or follows such as Adopt a Pet, which runs photos of adoptable animals every 30 minutes.

Mastodon is part of what is known as the fediverse. You don’t join Mastodon per se; you join a specific server (also known as an instance) run by an organization, individual, or group of individuals. Moderation policies are determined by each group (although there are basic moderation policies that apply to all the servers).

On the one hand, this means there is something of a learning curve that may confuse new users; on the other, it also means you can choose either a generalized instance or one that reflects your specific interests — an instance made up of, say, elementary school teachers or anime fans. And you’re not limited to a single server. You can follow people or have followers from other servers, and you can change servers — or create your own.

On Mastodon’s standard instances, you tend to have a 500-character limit per post. You can attach images, a video, or an audio file, and you can edit your posts after they are published. Hashtags are encouraged to help people find your content, and there are a variety of apps for iOS and Android devices. (There is also a site with a bunch of tips, Mastodon’s help site, and a variety of other places to find help.)

To sign up, you go to https://joinmastodon.org/ and click on “Join mastodon.social” (which is the most well-known server) or “Pick another server.” You can also go to Fedi.Garden, which offers what it describes as an “easy and stress-free way of choosing a Fediverse server.” You can choose to search by topic and / or language. Some instances will let you join immediately; others have waitlists.

Whether TikTok will still be around a few weeks from now may be somewhat up in the air, but as this is being written, it is still an extremely popular video-based social network.

The length of videos can vary: recorded using the app, they can range from 15 seconds to 10 minutes long, and you can also upload videos up to 60 minutes long. People can follow you and comment on your videos — and you can answer the comments with other videos. You can “stitch” other people’s videos into yours in order to hold a virtual dialogue and hold live video sessions (as long as you have at least 1,000 followers) where you interact with others and even accept gifts. And a text option allows you to post text-only entries in a variety of colors, typefaces, type sizes, and formats.

What videos you see on your feed depend on what the app’s algorithm decides you want to see, and this can change radically depending on what you choose to “like” or comment on, the creators you follow, and how much time you spend on specific videos.

Reddit is a well-known network that has been around for quite a while. The site is modeled off of classic message boards and is divided into subgroups, known as subreddits. You can join whatever subreddit piques your interest — anime, crochet, Star Wars, sci-fi literature, or whatever flavor of politics, religion, or social topics you want to chat about.

There can be more than one subreddit handling a different aspect of a topic or that has a different type of moderation. Each subreddit has its own rules, and the moderator can kick you out if you don’t adhere to them. You start a topic, and the discussion on that topic is threaded. You can upvote or downvote a topic or one of the entries in a topic. Because the interface is threaded, there can be discussions in which an author answers questions about a book or a tech expert helps with problems. But Reddit is big, so expect to spend some time exploring before you find your communities.

Tumblr — which launched in 2007 and has gone through its fair share of corporate owners — is more a series of blogs rather than a discussion social network. You can easily scroll through the latest entries of all the people you follow. You then click on the entry to see (and participate in) any discussions. Each entry is text, image, or video-based; followers can then discuss the entries via attached notes. You can also reblog (in other words, put the entry into your feed) or share the entry to other services. 

Tumblr has experimented with a number of features that haven’t panned out, such as Tumblr Live. Most recently, it has added Reddit-like topic-based communities.

Discord is more an invitational discussion service than a free-for-all social network. It is made up of separate servers that allow users to participate in text discussions, make video and voice calls, and exchange files; the interface can be heavily tweaked by the administrators depending on how they want to handle permissions, discussions, icons, etc. In other words, Discord can be a very useful tool, especially in the hands of someone who is reasonably tech-savvy. And if you have a family group looking for a new place to make its home, Discord could be an excellent choice.

When you download the Discord app (which is available for both desktop and mobile devices), you can list as many of the groups you belong to as you’d like on the left side of the screen. For example, if you’ve got a server from your company, a fan club, or a group of friends, you can easily click from one to the other.

According to an article in AfroTech, Spill was built by two ex-Twitter employees to create a safe space for diverse communities. Entries have a 280-character limit, and you can add photos, videos, GIFs, and links; text overlaps the images, giving the interface a more visual feel. You can also have special Tea Parties to gather via live video, audio, and chat, or create your own groups. Currently, it is available via Mac and iOS apps.

Spoutible is one of the more Twitter-like of the new social networks. Aptly, it uses a whale / ocean metaphor throughout: you “spout” your opinion instead of posting it and use “splashtags” instead of hashtags. Like Twitter, you have a profile page, you follow and are followed, and you have a timeline and can do one-to-one chats. But before you can contribute, you have to verify your phone number.

On Spoutible’s About Us page, it expresses its determination to take diversity and privacy seriously while mitigating harassment and other problems endemic to social networks. Unfortunately, it sprouted a massive data leak back in February 2024, which may have limited its popularity.

CounterSocial boasts on its front page that it doesn’t allow trolls, ads, or fake news — and has a long list of measures it takes to promote privacy and security, including identity breach alerts, real-time fake news awareness via FactLayer, and no third-party tracking. Other interesting features include “exploding posts” that can be set to self-detonate and livestreaming news from selected providers. There are apps for both Android and iOS.

You have a choice of UIs: the Advanced Mode works via a series of columns rather than the traditional feed. If you’ve ever used TweetDeck, you’ve got a fair idea of what it looks like. You can use each column to follow different hashtags or user lists. You can pin columns in their place or move them around the interface and arrange notifications for replies or new entries. The alternative Simplified Mode offers a single feed, more like Twitter or Facebook. There is also a chat link for support and conflict resolution.

Trust Cafe is a revamp of a social network previously called WT.Social. It is dedicated to creating a space “where honesty and authenticity are valued above all else.” To that end, it uses a system of trust levels, starting with Newbie / Guest and working your way up. Each level determines how visible your posts are and unlocks various other features. You advance by being voted as trustworthy by others whose trust level has already been established. You also need to be a paying member (starting with $8 monthly) if you want to really advance. You can have a free account, but you won’t advance beyond the Bronze level.

Snapchat’s motto, as it appears on its webpage, is “Less social media. More Snapchat.” But while Snapchat’s main purpose is to provide a fun and creative way to communicate with friends and family, there is also a social networking aspect to it: Snapchat Stories are short, snappy videos, many of which are public. You can subscribe to any video creators you’d like or hide those you don’t. And then there is Spotlight, which is incredibly TikTok-ish — you swipe through various short videos from different creators, like the ones you enjoy, subscribe to the ones you really like, and leave comments.

Any others?

There are a number of other social networking resources out there, of course; we’ve only touched on a few here.

No social network is forever (such as the late lamented CompuServe, the pre-Myspace Friendster, and the yes-it-is-still-there-sort-of AOL). Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have also definitely had a strong influence on community discourse over the last few years. We’ll have to see whether they retain that influence over the next few months and years — and if not, what (if anything) will replace them.

Update, January 8th, 2025: This article was originally published on November 1st, 2022; since then, several social networks have been added, a couple have been removed, and most of the other entries have been updated.