Vine Revisited - A Return to the Halcyon Days of the Internet

With a grant funded by Jack Dorsey, Rabble has created a new social video app - diVine - an open source revival of Vine videos and its six-second video creation capabilities

​Web Summit Lisbon, November 13, 2024Today, Rabble, one of Twitter's first employees and the person who hired Jack Dorsey, has launched diVine, an open-source social video app built on the Nostr protocol. The project, currently in beta mode, is funded by Dorsey through his non-profit "And Other Stuff." diVine revives the short-form video format popularized by Vine, which Dorsey shut down in early 2017 during his tenure as Twitter's CEO. The new video app reimagines the concept as a decentralized, open-source alternative.

Bringing Back Beloved Vine Content & Giving Creators Owner Rights
diVine provides access to over 100,000 archived Vine videos from the Internet Archive, which until now have been inaccessible, and allows users to make their own six-second videos and follow creators they love. Original Vine creators will also be able to reclaim ownership of their content, add new content, and, if they wish, request their content and account be removed as long as their accounts had been previously verified in Twitter.

Taking A Stand Against AI Slop
With AI-produced content fast becoming indistinguishable from regular content, AI slop has been flooding centralized mainstream social media platforms with requirements to tag AI content being largely ignored or enforced. diVine, which flags suspected GenAI content and prevents it from being posted, has been designed to bring back the days of 'real content made by real people'.

Ad-based Algorithms Aren't the Only Approach
"Social media is social first: it's about people and human connection. Vine represented an era of authentic human expression in six-second looping videos. Big tech companies want to remove the people and make all AI-generated social media apps where users are passive consumers of the algorithmic feed," says Rabble.

"I want to show people that we don't need to settle for this dystopia. The new diVine app is built on open source permissionless open protocols, and reflects the rights I outlined in my call for a new social media Bill of Rights. With apps like diVine we can see the alternative. It's possible to enable creators to publish engaging content, without needing to game an ad algorithm which promotes toxicity and thrives on conflict," said Rabble. "They should also have full ownership of their content, and the right to remove it if they so desire, along with the ability to be compensated for their creativity."

The Nostr protocol works just like internet or email protocols where the user chooses their web browser, or email service provider, and regardless of their choice, can still access all of their contacts and their content.

"Nostr - the underlying open source protocol being used by diVine - is empowering developers to create a new generation of apps without the need for VC-backing, toxic business models or huge teams of engineers," says Jack Dorsey. "The reason I funded the non-profit, and Other Stuff, is to allow creative engineers like Rabble to show what's possible in this new world, by using permissionless protocols which can't be shut down based on the whim of a corporate owner."

diVine is open to a limited number of users for beta testing at divine.video/open-source.

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