In a nutshell: Vine was officially retired in 2017, when Twitter decided to shut down the video-sharing network for good. Several attempts to revive the six-second video craze followed, but they all failed for one reason or another. Now, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is launching a new platform designed to serve as Vine's true successor.
The new service, called Divine, aims to build a business around the same "unfiltered creativity" that made Vine so popular. Unlike the original network, Divine is being built on open-source, decentralized technology, which should make it more resilient against censorship or takedowns. The platform uses Nostr, a decentralized protocol praised by Dorsey as a powerful tool for people looking to create new networks without resorting to toxic business models.
Dorsey is funding Divine and other tech initiatives through andOtherStuff, a non-profit organization established in May 2025. Divine will not only succeed Vine in spirit but also restore portions of the original network's content, and potentially some user profiles.
The reconstruction work was made possible by Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of Twitter's early employees, and a backup of Vine videos collected by the Archive Team. This collective of archivists and programmers preserved Vine's content in large binary files, which Henshaw-Plath had to analyze in order to extract the original video clips and associated metadata.
The developer successfully recovered between 150,000 and 200,000 videos from around 60,000 creators. These clips will form the foundation of Divine's initial network, though Vine creators can submit a DMCA request to have their content removed. The new app, which enrolled 10,000 beta testers within hours, may even restore original creators' accounts if they can verify ownership to the company.
Unlike the majority of today's tech ventures, Divine intends to avoid AI-generated content and the broader issues of algorithm-driven "internet enshittification." The platform will implement technical measures to ensure that posted content is human-created and will actively ban AI-generated videos.
According to Henshaw-Plath, a significant portion of internet users still value human creativity and interaction, despite the proliferation of AI-generated content and generative AI services. The developers hope that Divine will become a nostalgia-fueled hit, standing out in a landscape dominated by algorithmic feeds and AI-driven engagement.
Video sharing platform Vine is being rebooted with a strict "no AI" policy
