Jack Dorsey is reviving Vine… sort of. And in the most unexpected turn, the rebooted platform has one strict rule: no AI content.
As first reported by TechCrunch, the Twitter co-founder and blockchain evangelist has helped bring back the beloved six-second video app under a new name: diVine. The project launches with more than 100,000 archived Vine clips, carefully recovered from the original platform’s digital remains, a tiny slice of the millions that once fueled Vine’s 200 million monthly users before its shutdown in 2016.
But nostalgia isn’t the real story here. diVine is positioning itself as a counter-movement to today’s algorithm-choked, AI-generated feeds.
A Platform Where AI Is Not Allowed
Generative AI content is banned outright. Uploads suspected of using AI will be automatically flagged and rejected. The goal? To reclaim a very specific era of the internet, one powered by real people, real phones, and real creativity.
“I’m like, can we do something that’s kind of nostalgic?” early Twitter employee Evan ‘Rabble’ Henshaw-Plath explained. “Where you know that it’s a real person that recorded the video?”
It’s a sentiment that resonates. In an internet increasingly overrun with synthetic clips and algorithm farming, diVine is tapping into a growing desire for authenticity, and agency.
“Companies see the AI engagement and they think that people want it,” Henshaw-Plath added. “We also want agency over our lives and over our social experiences.”
The Archive That Made It Possible
The revival only exists thanks to Archive Time, a collective of rogue archivists who rescued the Vine database before it vanished. Their work allowed Henshaw-Plath, now part of Dorsey’s nonprofit And Other Stuff, to rebuild a functioning Vine experience on top of Nostr, an open, decentralized protocol championed by Dorsey.
That choice isn’t accidental. Dorsey says Nostr enables apps “without the need for VC-backing, toxic business models or huge teams of engineers.”
A Slow, Creator-First Rollout
diVine isn’t opening the floodgates to everyone. Instead, it’s prioritizing the 60,000 original creators whose videos were salvaged, giving them first rights to reclaim their accounts and post new clips.
Early Buzz… And Early Problems
Interest is already massive: Henshaw-Plath says 10,000 people joined the TestFlight in the first four hours.
But the rollout isn’t smooth everywhere. diVine is live on Android, yet Apple’s App Store is proving a roadblock, repeatedly rejecting the app.
And there’s another potential challenge looming: Elon Musk. In August, the X owner claimed he would relaunch the Vine archive himself. If diVine gains traction, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Musk attempt to assert ownership or throw legal obstacles in the way.