Vine is officially returning as diVine and fans are already obsessed with the comeback. The reboot promises real, human-made videos only, banning AI content entirely.
Vine has made a surprise comeback and is banking on one bold rule to set it apart from every other app dominating our screens.
The reboot, called diVine, is being built to revive the chaotic, authentic humour that made Vine iconic when it first appeared in 2012. Back then, it became the place for six-second comedy, random chaos and early internet stars, long before TikTok existed.
After launching, the app was snapped up by Twitter’s then-boss Jack Dorsey for around $30million (£22million). It eventually fizzled out in 2017 when creators struggled to actually earn money from what they posted.
But now Jack is backing a reinvention of the platform, putting $10million (£7.6million) behind diVine through his nonprofit. The new version is being created by Evan Henshaw-Plath – known online as Rabble, one of Twitter’s earliest employees who wants to bring back what he sees as “real” social media.
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As part of the revival, the team will be restoring thousands of classic Vine clips from the original archives, giving users an instant throwback to the era of “do it for the Vine”, “I could’ve dropped my croissant” and all the iconic chaos that still lives in our heads rent-free.
But the biggest part of the announcement was their bid that no AI content will be allowed on the app and while it feels most platforms are drowning in AI edits, AI filters and “AI slop,” diVine is going in the opposite direction – only real videos made by real people.
Speaking to Business Insider, Rabble said: “There’s this bulls**t that we’re seeing from Meta and OpenAI and others where they decided that somehow we’re better off with all AI-created social media content. That’s not where social media came from.
“Social media was social first, it’s about humans and our connection, not just pretty videos.”
And online vine lovers are already celebrating. One user wrote: “Vine is coming back and it’s going to be anti AI… the world is starting to heal.”
Another added: “vine’s back and we must protect it at all costs.”
It comes months after Elon Musk teased his own revival, posting: “we’re bringing back vine, but in AI form.” diVine, however, is positioning itself as the human-first alternative – flagging suspected AI uploads and blocking them before they ever reach a timeline.
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Evan has made it clear the reboot is designed to recreate early internet energy: spontaneous, messy, and real content “I want to show people that we don’t need to settle for this dystopia,” he said in a press release, later adding “With apps like Divine, we can see the alternative.”
If diVine pulls this off, the six-second format that shaped an entire generation might just take over again with human content at the forefront.
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