Yes, Vine Is Back, But It Is Returning With A Major Social Media Twist

Jack Dorsey has quietly funded the rebirth of Vine, rebranded as “diVine”, a six-second video platform that revives the looping format while drawing a firm boundary: no generative AI content allowed. Backed by Dorsey’s nonprofit and led by Evan Henshaw Plath, also known as Rabble, diVine blends nostalgia with a deliberate pushback against an internet drowning in synthetic media.

diVine launches with more than one hundred thousand archived Vine videos restored from pre shutdown backups and offers eligible original creators the chance to reclaim their old accounts. The platform is built on open and decentralized principles, using federated protocols and technology that lets users choose providers instead of being locked inside a single centralized system.

The strict no AI rule, according to the team, is a response to what they criticize as a flood of low effort machine generated clips that weaken creative work and fuel nonstop algorithmic noise. diVine will screen uploads to detect AI generation by combining device provenance checks and verification tools designed to confirm that clips were captured on real phones rather than fabricated by models. The founders say this protects the social value of genuine human moments.

diVine is intentionally small and focused, which is why it seems it is not aiming to compete with TikTok or YouTube Shorts. At least, that’s what it seems now.

Instead of being a flashy platform, it wants to create a space for authentic microcontent and a community of creators who want their work to be unmistakably human. Its revival of Vine’s short looping clips attracts nostalgia, while its modern tech stack offers decentralized protocols, recovered creator archives and privacy oriented verification features.

Vine revival comes at a time when social media is changing. We see more and more platforms incorporating AI as the core of their content making strategies. Due to this, we see a major algorithmic opacity and the flood of synthetic content, that had many experts calling the death of internet as we know it. diVine is betting that many users still crave genuine human creativity, and it is here to provide the gap others left behind.

And they have a nifty strategy to sift: diVine plans to identify suspected AI content using heuristics, device data, and verification tools. Creators who can verify ownership of old Vine accounts and demonstrate authentic device provenance can upload new six second videos. Early tooling reportedly includes open source technology for content provenance and authenticity checks.

However, with all the name and glitz, people seem less sure to jump on the bandwagon. Many social media subreddits expressed distaste at Dorsey commanding the ship:

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All of the hubbub would never dim the perks original Viners can avail. They can easily reclaim their old accounts, particularly the handles before fans grab them, and control their content. The team has indicated interest in monetization models that avoid traditional advertising, including livestream tipping and micropayments. Although this model may help a small creative community thrive, sustaining it without the scale of major platforms will be challenging.

Vine’ revival also raises a broader question: should platforms draw limits around AI generated content to preserve human creativity, or regulate it only when harm occurs?

Vine was shut down in 2017 because it failed to keep up with rapidly growing competitors like Instagram and Snapchat, which offered longer videos and better creator tools.