As such, there was lots of chatter online around Discord serving as a potential safe haven from the gremlins lurking in Twitter’s digital shadows. Some folks support the idea of moving to the instant messaging platform, saying Musk is liable to “fuck up” Twitter’s usability. While Discord can be overwhelming for those who want to be active in many communities, it seems some folks, at least, would take the closed-community aspect of Discord over the shouting-in-a-public-square vibe Twitter regularly gives off.

Still, Discord isn’t without its own issues. Many chastised the app’s servers as “walled gardens” in which harmful rhetoric can—and often does—fester. There’s also the problem of supporting artists, many of whom use Twitter as a way to get their creations in front of people and monetize their content. In many fundamental ways, Discord and Twitter just aren’t the same and don’t fill a similar hole.

Advertisement

Kotaku has reached out to Discord for comment.

Despite the back and forth over whether Discord is the new Twitter, the chatter cements the instant messaging app into the mainstream. Twitter is often called a public square, and Musk believes it’s “the digital space where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” If folks are talking more openly about migrating to Discord, it might be a matter of time before celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and the like start their own servers.

Advertisement