Best Alternatives to X (aka Twitter)

Let’s face it—Twitter, now known as “X” by literally only Elon Musk, has become a societal cesspool. While it was once a hub for real-time news, meaningful connections, and witty commentary, the platform has devolved into a chaotic battleground of trolling, misinformation, censorship, and divisive discourse. Unsurprisingly, it’s one of the least used major social media sites among U.S. teenagers. In 2024, only 17% of teens reported using Twitter, down from 23% in 2022. (Source). This downward trend suggests that younger generations are becoming more discerning, opting to distance themselves from the chaos and seeking alternatives that align more closely with their values and preferences.

In this article, we’ll explore the best alternatives to Twitter—platforms that foster meaningful connections, encourage healthy discourse, and provide a refreshing escape from the digital quagmire. Whether you’re seeking a space for open dialogue free from Musk’s censorship, creative expression, or just a less toxic experience, there’s a platform for you. Let’s explore what’s next beyond the Twitter fallout.

Instagram Threads

Threads is Meta’s answer to Twitter. Although it’s closely tied to Instagram (you’ll need an Instagram account to sign up), Threads is a standalone app. Meta launched Threads on July 5, 2023, aiming to attract users fleeing Twitter after Musk’s takeover. Since the election, Threads has seen a massive influx of millions of users.

Threads is very similar to Twitter in format and features. Users can post videos up to 5 minuts long, images, links, and short messages up to 500 characters, which is actually more than X allows. It also allows users to repost or ‘quote’ other users’ post, where quoting is essentially just adding a caption to a repost.

However, there are several significant downsides to Threads. First, it is owned by Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, which is notorious for misusing private information and essentially acting as a tattletale. There are stories of artists being banned from promoting their work on Facebook simply for mentioning LGBTQ+ themes. In one case, an author had to remove all mentions of LGBTQ+ topics from their seller website because Meta restricted advertising for their books. The artist explained, “In order to keep selling my books, I can’t say gay anymore.” (Source) When being gay becomes illegal again under Trump’s dictatorship, Meta won’t hestitate to sell you out in a heartbeat, happily prioritizing compliance over protecting its users.

Second, everything shared on Messenger can and has been used against you. For example, law enforcement has already accessed Messenger data to prosecute women seeking abortions in those horrendous states with full bans. They also actively collect information on your health and fitness, purchases, financial info, location, contact info, user content, search history, browsing history, identifiers, usage data, sensitive info, diagnostics, photos and videos, audio, and even your calendar. This isn’t speculation or exaggeration. This is what Threads explicitly states they collect in the user agreement. On Meta platforms, privacy is nonexistent.

A third issue is the platform’s timeline. The posts curated for you are entirely algorithm-based, leaving you with no control over the content you are exposed to.

So maybe Threads isn’t that great, but it’s still not as Toxic as X and its where the majority of celebrities have fled since Election Day. Luckily, there are better options out there than both Threads and X.

Bluesky

Among all the alternatives, Bluesky is the most similar to Twitter—perhaps because it was originally created by Twitter. Like Twitter, users can share short messages, videos, and images, referred to as “skeets,” which may not have been the best name they could have come up with. Bluesky also recently added a trending feature and its layout closely resembles Twitter’s original design.

The Bluesky project was originally intended to develop an open-source and decentralized social media platform, giving users greater privacy and control over their data. Decentralization simply means users are not required to use Bluesky’s servers to host their data. Instead, they can select any server they prefer, ensuring they retain ownership and control over their data. In such cases, Bluesky has no access to users’ data. However, most users still choose to host their data on Bluesky’s servers. Decentralization also means that technicaly no single entity owns and controls the entire platform.

Unsurprisingly, Elon Musk severed all ties with Bluesky when he acquired Twitter, because he’s a horrible person who opposes giving users more control over their data and experience. Despite the uncertainty surrounding Bluesky’s future funding following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the company pressed forward, launching an invite-only beta version in February 2023. This exclusivity initially attracted minority groups and subcultures, who found Bluesky to be a safer space compared to other social media platforms. The invite-only model also helped protect these marginalized groups from online harassment.

On February 6, 2024, Bluesky officially launched to the general public. Since then, it has experienced modest growth punctuated by several spikes in new users. Its most significant growth occurred after November 5, 2024, widely regarded as one of the worst days in recent American history by every sane person, aka Election Day. By November 19, Bluesky was gaining approximately 1 million new users per day, tripling its user base to over 20 million. The surge in new users was widely attributed to widespread anger over Elon Musk’s use of his ill-gotten wealth to influence the election and his willy-nilly censorship of anything he didn’t agree with, prompting users to abandon Twitter. In fact, on November 6th, 2024, X experienced its largest drop in users since Musk’s purchase in 2022, continuing a trend of declining usage that began in 2022. Unsuprisingly, X’s PR refused to disclose any statistics on just how many users actually abandoned the platform in November. (Source)

Unlike Twitter, Bluesky actively moderates content to prevent and remove racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, and other hateful rhetoric that Republicans often exploit. The platform strives to maintain a safe space for marginalized communities. While the rapid influx of users following the election has made content moderation more challenging, there is hope that Bluesky will scale its moderation efforts as its user base grows—ensuring it avoids devolving into another platform riddled with trolling and hate speech like X.

Mastodon

Like the social media platforms previously mentioned in this article, Mastodon shares many features and a similar format to Twitter. Users can create posts, called “toots” instead of tweets, which are limited to 500 characters. They can also share images, and videos, favorite other posts, follow other accounts, and enjoy other standard features we’ve come to associate with social media. Like Bluesky, Mastodon also operates on a partially decentralized model, where in this case decentralized means no single company controls the entire network.

In order to offer users greater control over their privacy and data, Mastodon offers features that X would never dream of offering, such as automated deletion of older posts, options to opt out of search engine indexing, and the ability to require follower approval. Currently, Mastodon does not rely on advertising, which means there is no ad-network surveillance or selling of private data to “enhance your ad experience” or whatever other lies Google and Meta like throw at you as an excuse for selling your information. The software running Mastodon is also open source. It was built using the ActivityPub protocol, which is a social networking standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. This adherence to standards sets it apart from other social media platforms like X, which lacks any standards at all. And unlike Threads which collects every single piece of user data it can think of, Mastodon collects no user data whatsoever.

Mastodon, however, works a bit differently than Threads, X, or even Bluesky. On those platforms, signing up theoretically gives you access to every single users’ posts. With Mastodon, when you sign up, you join a specific “instance,” which is essentially just a group or a community. The most popular instance, Mastodon.social, caters to a general audience, but there are many other instances that focus on specific hobbies, geographical regions, or topics. Some of these instances require an invitation that would then need to be approved by an administrator of the instance. However, you don’t have to wait to get an invite, you can request one. Other instances have open registration, meaning no invitation required. Once you join an instance, your timeline shows posts from members of that specific instance. Because some of these instances are invitiation only and have active administrators and moderators of the content, users are theoretically better protected from harassment and hate speech compared to platforms like X, where such rhetoric is actively promoted. This structure helps foster a safer and more inclusive environment.

As Elon’s “X” continues to decline, these platforms offer a breath of fresh air for users craving meaningful interactions and a less toxic online experience. Whether you opt for Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, or another alternative, the future of social media is hopefully ours to shape.

Further Resources

• MSN: Teens aren’t that into X
• X users jump to Bluesky – but what is it and who owns it?
  Bluesky is picking up one million new users every day at its current rate.
• X sees largest user exodus since Musk takeover
  Users are exploring alternatives like Bluesky and Threads.
• What is Instagram Threads, and How Do You Use It?
  Here’s what you need to know about getting started with Thread.
• A Twitter Alternative: How Does Mastodon Work?
  It’s like Twitter, but decentralized, open source, and largely free of ad network surveillance.

Disclaimer: This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

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