Jack Dorsey Funds Divine, A Vine Reboot That Includes Vine’s Video Archive

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As generative AI contented starts to capable our societal apps, a task to bring backmost Vine’s six-second looping videos is launching pinch Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s backing. On Thursday, a caller app called diVine will springiness entree to much than 100,000 archived Vine videos, restored from an older backup that was created earlier Vine’s shutdown.

The app won’t conscionable beryllium arsenic a locomotion down representation lane; it will besides let users to create profiles and upload their ain caller Vine videos. However, dissimilar connected accepted societal media, wherever AI contented is often haphazardly labeled, diVine will emblem suspected generative AI contented and forestall it from being posted.

DiVine’s creation was financed by Jack Dorsey’s nonprofit, “and Other Stuff,” formed successful May 2025. The caller effort is focused connected backing experimental unfastened root projects and different devices that person nan imaginable to toggle shape nan societal media landscape.

To build diVine, Evan Henshaw-Plath, an early Twitter worker and member of “and Other Stuff,” explored nan Vine archive. After Twitter announced it was shutting down nan short video app successful 2016, its videos were backed up by a group called nan Archive Team. This organization archiving task is not affiliated pinch Archive.org, but is alternatively a corporate that useful together to prevention net websites that are successful threat of being lost.

Unfortunately, nan group had saved Vine’s contented arsenic large, 40-50 GB binary files, which wouldn’t beryllium accessible to personification who conscionable wanted to watch immoderate aged Vine videos. The truth nan archive existed prompted Evan Henshaw-Plath (who goes by nan sanction Rabble) to spot if it was imaginable to extract nan aged Vine contented to service arsenic nan ground for a caller Vine-like mobile app.

“So basically, I’m like, tin we do thing that’s benignant of nostalgic?” he told TechCrunch. “Can we do thing that takes america back, that lets america spot those aged things, but besides lets america spot an era of societal media wherever you could either person power of your algorithms, aliases you could take who you follow, and it’s conscionable your feed, and wherever you cognize that it’s a existent personification that recorded nan video?”

Rabble spent a mates of months penning large information scripts and figuring retired really nan files worked, past reconstructed them on pinch nan accusation connected nan aged Vine users and nan personification engagement pinch nan videos, for illustration their views and moreover a subset of nan original comments.

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“I wasn’t capable to get each of them out, but I was capable to get a batch retired and fundamentally reconstruct these Vines and these Vine users, and springiness each personification a caller personification [profile] connected this unfastened network,” he said.

Rabble estimates nan app contains a “good percentage” of nan astir celebrated Vine videos, but not a ample number of nan agelong tail. For instance, he says location were millions of K-pop-focused videos that were ne'er moreover archived.

“We person astir 150,000 to 200,000 of nan videos from astir 60,000 of nan creators,” he noted, adding that, originally, Vine had a mates of cardinal users and a fewer cardinal creators by comparison.

Vine creators, who still ain nan copyright to their work, tin nonstop diVine a DMCA takedown petition if they want their Vines removed, aliases they tin verify they’re nan relationship holder by demonstrating they’re still successful possession of nan societal media accounts that were primitively listed successful their Vine bio. (This process isn’t automated, though, truthful location could beryllium a hold if a ample number of creators effort to do this astatine once.)

Once they person their relationship back, they tin besides take to station caller videos aliases upload their aged contented that nan restoration process missed.

To verify that caller video uploads are human-made, Rabble is utilizing exertion from nan quality authorities nonprofit nan Guardian Project, which helps to verify that contented was really recorded connected a smartphone, on pinch different checks.

Plus, because it’s built connected Nostr, a decentralized protocol favored by Dorsey, and is unfastened source, developers tin group up and create their ain apps and tally their ain hosts, relays, and media servers.

“Nostr – nan underlying unfastened root protocol being utilized by diVine – is empowering developers to create a caller procreation of apps without nan request for VC-backing, toxic business models aliases immense teams of engineers,” Jack Dorsey said successful a provided statement. “The logic I funded nan non-profit, and Other Stuff, is to let imaginative engineers for illustration Rabble to show what’s imaginable successful this caller world, by utilizing permissionless protocols which can’t beryllium unopen down based connected nan whim of a firm owner.”

Twitter/X’s existent owner, Elon Musk, has besides promised to bring backmost Vine, having announced successful August that nan institution discovered nan aged video archive. But truthful far, thing has been publically launched. The Dorsey-backed diVine project, meanwhile, believes that because nan contented is coming from an online archive and creators still ain their copyrights, it’s adjacent use.

Rabble besides believes there’s user request for this type of non-AI, societal experience, contempt nan fame of generative AI contented and wide take of apps for illustration OpenAI’s Sora and Meta AI.

“Companies spot nan AI engagement and they deliberation that group want it,” explained Rabble. “They’re confusing, for illustration — yes, group prosecute pinch it; yes, we’re utilizing these things — but we besides want agency complete our lives and complete our societal experiences. So I deliberation there’s a nostalgia for nan early Web 2.0 era, for nan blogging era, for nan era that gave america podcasting, nan era that you were building communities, alternatively of conscionable gaming nan algorithm,” he said.

DiVine is disposable connected some iOS and Android astatine diVine.video.