Facebook’s Meta working on potential Twitter rival, says exploring standalone social network for sharing text updates

Amid reports that the company was planning an app to compete with Twitter, Facebook-owned Meta on Friday said it is exploring a standalone decentralised social network for sharing text updates.

Meta said it believes there is an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.

The comment came after a report that Meta -- the parent firm of Facebook and Instagram -- is planning to launch a Twitter rival and that the app will be based on a decentralised framework like Mastodon, another Twitter-like service.

"We're exploring a standalone decentralised social network for sharing text updates. We believe there's an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests," a Meta spokesperson said.

However, the US social media giant did not give exact details or the timeframe for the rollout of the new app.

Interestingly, Meta's latest move comes when Twitter has been in the spotlight for controversial reasons ranging from technical glitches to layoffs.

After billionaire Elon Musk's USD 44 billion-takeover of Twitter, the micro-blogging platform initiated a massive cost-cutting drive globally.

In fact, Twitter downsized from more than 7,000 people to 2,300 active employees across the globe the mass layoffs began with the firing of CEO Parag Agrawal as well as the CFO and many other high ranking leaders last year.

With PTI Inputs