Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine’s video archive

As generative AI contented starts to capable our societal apps, a task to bring backmost Vine’s six-second looping videos is launching with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s backing. On Thursday, a caller app called diVine volition 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 volition besides let users to make profiles and upload their ain caller Vine videos. However, dissimilar connected accepted societal media, wherever AI contented is often haphazardly labeled, diVine volition emblem suspected generative AI contented and forestall it from being posted.

Image Credits:daVine

DiVine’s instauration 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 tools that person the imaginable to alteration the societal media landscape.

To physique diVine, Evan Henshaw-Plath, an aboriginal Twitter worker and member of “and Other Stuff,” explored the Vine archive. After Twitter announced it was shutting down the abbreviated video app successful 2016, its videos were backed up by a radical called the Archive Team. This assemblage archiving task is not affiliated with Archive.org, but is alternatively a corporate that works unneurotic to prevention net websites that are successful information of being lost.

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

Image Credits:daVine

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

Rabble spent a mates of months penning large information scripts and figuring retired however the files worked, past reconstructed them on with the accusation connected the aged Vine users and the idiosyncratic engagement with the videos, similar their views and adjacent a subset of the archetypal comments.

“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 idiosyncratic a caller idiosyncratic [profile] connected this unfastened network,” helium said.

Rabble estimates the app contains a “good percentage” of the astir fashionable Vine videos, but not a ample fig of the agelong tail. For instance, helium says determination were millions of K-pop-focused videos that were ne'er adjacent archived.

Image Credits:daVine

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

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

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

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

Image Credits:daVine

Plus, due to the fact that it’s built connected Nostr, a decentralized protocol favored by Dorsey, and is unfastened source, developers tin acceptable up and make their ain apps and tally their ain hosts, relays, and media servers.

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

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

Image Credits:daVine

Rabble besides believes there’s user request for this benignant of non-AI, societal experience, contempt the popularity of generative AI contented and wide adoption of apps similar OpenAI’s Sora and Meta AI.

“Companies spot the AI engagement and they deliberation that radical privation it,” explained Rabble. “They’re confusing, similar — yes, radical prosecute with it; yes, we’re utilizing these things — but we besides privation bureau implicit our lives and implicit our societal experiences. So I deliberation there’s a nostalgia for the aboriginal Web 2.0 era, for the blogging era, for the epoch that gave america podcasting, the epoch that you were gathering communities, alternatively of conscionable gaming the algorithm,” helium said.

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