Game On! Says Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Sharing a Tweet about Instagram’s Twitter Clone

On May 13th Elon Musk declared that former NBCU ad executive, Linda Yaccarino will be succeeding Musk as the Twitter CEO as he would take up the roles of CTO and executive chair. Yaccarino retweeted a post by Techcrunch, acknowledging a new potential competitor in the text-based social network space. Meta has created a decentralized text-based application that doesn’t have an official name yet. Some high-profile users, actors, influencers, and athletes were given early access to the yet unnamed application. There is quite a buzz around this right now considering that this could give Twitter a run for its money.

Linda Yaccarino’s tweet is really meaningful. Instagram’s Twitter-clone (some sources say, the developers are calling it P92 or Barcelona) will be connected to Instagram. That means your privacy settings, your block list, and your authority on Instagram will carry to the text-based app – the profiles will be connected. “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized 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 shared.

Twitter has had a rough time since its acquisition by Musk. A lot of serious advertisers have lost faith and interest in using Twitter as a viable platform for advertising and communication. With Twitter progressively losing its credibility, platforms like Mastodon, Hive and Bluesky have come up as alternatives. The positioning of Linda Yaccarino, a top tier ad exec, at Twitter’s helm is a desperate tactical move by Musk to bring back the advertisers. The launch of a Twitter-like app by Instagram at this juncture can rupture Twitter’s market share further.

Instagram has been pretty good with following and cloning its competitors. The inclusion of reels imitating TikTok and stories following Snapchat were both successful steps. The text-based app connected to Instagram profiles could be a very interesting Twitter alternative.