Elon Musk asked Twitter followers if he should bring back Vine, the cult TikTok forerunner that popularized short-form video

Loading Something is loading.

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go. download the app

Elon Musk asked followers whether he should bring back Vine, the short-form video app which shut down in 2016, as Twitter’s new owner looks to shake things up at the company.

On Sunday evening, the world’s richest person tweeted a yes or no poll captioned “Bring back Vine?”

Within six hours, more than 2 million votes showed almost 70% in favor of reviving the social media platform. 

First launched in 2013, Vine let users share six-second videos which looped automatically. Internet stars like Logan Paul and David Dobrik, as well as singer Shawn Mendes, all found fame through the platform.

However, its popularity died down after many of its top creators left the platform. Many cited a lack of advertising and monetization opportunities on the platform for their departures. Twitter discontinued Vine in 2016, keeping an archive service until it fully shut down three years later.

Twitter founder and then CEO Jack Dorsey later described Vine’s closure as “his biggest regret.”

Musical.ly then became the most popular short-form video app, with an emphasis on lip-syncing videos, before being bought by ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, in 2017. TikTok went on to become a global phenomenon, with more than 2 billion downloads worldwide.

Musk did not shy away from the question of competing with TikTok, replying to a tweet from YouTuber Mr Beast, who has over 100 million subscribers. 

“What could we do to make it better than TikTok?” Musk asked.

Mr Beast suggested “make it hard to copy or it’s a waste of time,” referring to Instagram Reels and Youtube Shorts as ways other tech companies have tried to get a slice of TikTok’s short-form video dominance. 

Alex Ernst, another internet star who first found fame on Vine before moving to YouTube and collaborating with David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad, replied that TikTok could be topped “by not spying on us.”

The US military banned its members from posting on TikTok in 2020 amid concerns that the Chinese-owned app is a “cyber threat.”

Donald Trump’s administration nearly banned the platform that same year, alleging that TikTok spies on its users.

Experts told Insider that the app’s privacy policy was no more intrusive than Facebook’s, but concerns remain because of its Chinese ownership. 

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.