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• Most recently the microblogging platform backed by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Bluesky, saw a surge of sign-ups in the days following Twitter’s rate limit, and Meta launched its microblogging platform Threads on July 5.
• Even very different forms of social media such as TikTok are benefiting from what many see as Twitter’s imminent demise.
• The turmoil at Twitter is causing many of the company’s users to consider leaving the platform.
• Research on previous social media platform migrations shows what might lie ahead for Twitter users who fly the coop.

‘You go first’

• These migrations are in large part driven by network effects, meaning that the value of a new platform depends on who else is there.
• For this reason, the “death” of a platform – whether from a controversy, disliked change or competition – tends to be a slow, gradual process.

It’ll never be the same

• What makes Twitter Twitter isn’t the technology, it’s the particular configuration of interactions that takes place there.
• And there is essentially zero chance that Twitter, as it exists now, could be reconstituted on another platform.
• But as our study implies, migrations always have a cost, and even for smaller communities, some people will get lost along the way.

The ties that bind

• They might be unwilling to completely cut ties all at once, but they might dip their toes into a new platform by sharing the same content on both.
• Ways to import networks from another platform also help to maintain communities.
• In this sense, Threads has an advantage over other Twitter alternatives because users sign up via their Instagram accounts.
• But even if there is a price to pay for leaving a platform, communities can be incredibly resilient.