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Ever since billionaire Elon Musk decided it was a good idea to acquire Twitter back in 2022, the social media platform has been bogged down in controversy. In fact, if anything, Twitter has become even more polarizing this year, due to Elon Musk’s reinstatement of banned individuals and support for controversial figures like Tucker Carlson. As a result of all this controversy and uncertainty, a door of opportunity has opened for companies looking to take out Twitter right now.
At the top of the list is Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Meta recently unveiled a new stealth initiative currently known only as Project 92. According to Meta executives, this new social media platform will be Facebook’s version of Twitter, giving users a “sanely run” platform that’s safe and easy to use. We don’t know the exact timing on when this will launch, but coding and development for it started back in January, and Meta hinted that Project 92 is coming as soon as possible.
Let the Facebook vs. Twitter War Begin
Normally, it pays to be skeptical about a new “me-too” offering from a big company. These types of things don’t tend to work, because consumers are just too smart. But Facebook does have a strong track record of co-opting potential competition. Facebook has also been fearless about buying out the competition, as it did with WhatsApp and Instagram. So the more that Elon Musk bragged that he was cutting staff and running Twitter on just a skeleton crew of employees, the more it probably occurred to executives at Facebook HQ that, hey, maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to take on Twitter after all.
And Facebook has several major factors in its favor. One, it has a huge, in-built user base of literally billions of users worldwide. How hard will it be to convert some of them into users of Project 92? Facebook says that it will be using a new decentralized social media protocol that will make it very easy to port over new users, all of their contacts, and all of their social media information. Long story short, but Facebook won’t be starting from scratch on this one. Conceivably, as soon as the code is ready, Project 92 will be ready to take on Twitter directly.
And Facebook has one other major factor in its favor, and that’s access to big-time celebrities and influencers. Supposedly, Facebook is working on getting both Oprah and the Dalai Lama to support and use the new platform. That would be huge, because most new social media platforms that launch have a hard time convincing users to move to another platform. But Project 92 will launch with plenty of “social proof.”
But is this the right direction for Meta?
At the end of the day, it seems like Meta is searching for a new identity. It apparently gave up on the metaverse, and has been racing after artificial intelligence initiatives in the wake of ChatGPT. But maybe the future of Meta is the same sort of “X App” envisioned by Elon Musk – a sort of everything social media app that looks a lot like the most popular Chinese social media apps.
Whatever happens, it’s certain to be entertaining. Going head to head with Elon Musk – the troll king himself – seems like it will end badly for Mark Zuckerberg. But The Zuck has plenty of tools and firepower at his disposal. If he can win over enough high-profile influencers and creators, then maybe Elon Musk will rue the day he decided to blow $44 billion on Twitter.
