New York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n Millennials, rejoice \u2026 the beloved video app Vine is being resurrected.\n <\/p>\n
\n Well, sort of.\n <\/p>\n
\n The internet mourned when Twitter shuttered the six-second, looping video app Vine in 2017. While Vine had struggled to build a viable business model in a crowded market, it pioneered short-form videos and spawned countless cultural references.\n <\/p>\n
\n It also helped to launch celebrities like Logan Paul<\/a> and Shawn Mendes<\/a>. And it was viewed as a home for the kind of silly human creativity that, these days, is increasingly replaced in our feeds by AI slop.\n <\/p>\n \n Now, nearly a decade later, a new app aims to restore the format and spirit of its predecessor.\n <\/p>\n \n Divine<\/a>, which similarly features a scrolling feed of six-second videos, officially launched last week after nine months of development and beta testing<\/a>. Users can create content on the app and view its archive of more than 2 million original Vine posts.\n <\/p>\n \n Divine is not formally affiliated with Vine despite being inspired by original app, which was owned by X, then known as Twitter.\n <\/p>\n \n Unlike the rivals that helped push the original app out of business, Divine says it won\u2019t allow users to post AI-generated content.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI want to see things that are creative and are human and that are weird \u2026 there\u2019s a way in which AI generates this sort of mediocrity,\u201d the app\u2019s founder, who goes by Rabble, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Rabble, an early Twitter employee<\/a>, created Divine with backing from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.\n <\/p>\n \n Divine has already racked up around 100,000 users, Rabble said. Some have made videos inspired by 2010s memes, others have celebrated the return of a platform that hearkens back to a time when many felt less pessimistic<\/a> about the role of social media in their lives. This week, it announced its first brand partnership with Taco Bell.\n <\/p>\n \n For those unfamiliar with the lore, Vine was founded in 2012 as one of the first apps to enable anyone to create and post short videos. It was acquired months later by Twitter for $30 million. Although it once felt like a ubiquitous part of online culture, it struggled to compete when rival apps like Instagram launched short-form video content. An already struggling Twitter announced plans to shut it down in 2016.\n <\/p>\n \n Before Vine was gone for good, volunteer internet archivists preserved many of its videos for posterity and Divine used this archive to restore some of the internet\u2019s favorites.\n <\/p>\n \n Divine isn\u2019t the only platform trying to tap into nostalgia. In a recent documentary, the owners of MySpace said they\u2019re looking to revive the site<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The movement speaks to the frustration many internet users feel about their lack of control on mainstream social media apps \u2014 including how the algorithms shape their feeds and how content is moderated \u2014 especially after the controversial sale of X to Elon Musk, Rabble said.\n <\/p>\n \n Rabble wants to set Divine apart by giving users more transparency and control over the app\u2019s operations.\n <\/p>\n \n The app offers a detailed explanation of the algorithm behind their \u201cFor You\u201d page. And users can choose from feeds with different algorithms, like those focused on animals or style or the most popular videos on the app.\n <\/p>\n \n The app\u2019s creators also say they\u2019re using multiple forms of detection to try to prevent AI-generated content. The move follows efforts by Pinterest<\/a> and LinkedIn<\/a> to respond to users\u2019 frustrations with AI slop in their feeds.\n <\/p>\n \n And Divine is built on a decentralized digital infrastructure, similar to X rival platforms Mastodon<\/a> and Bluesky<\/a>. That means users can easily move their content and profiles to other decentralized platforms. People could also use Divine\u2019s open-sourced technology to create their own online communities without posting to the platform itself.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI look forward to a place where we can have a better idea of what healthy social media is, and where people think that it doesn\u2019t have to be this sort of nightmarish hellscape,\u201d Rabble said. \u201cI think this idea of not having human agency over how we make our own norms and rules has created a toxic culture.\u201d\n <\/p>\n