SAN FRANCISCO — The once-celebrated platform, Vine, has made a comeback, albeit in a new form. Earlier this week, Dorsey disclosed to TechCrunch that he has been quietly backing the revival efforts of the beloved six-second video app. The relaunched version, currently in its beta phase, boasts a collection of archived videos from the original Vine.

Originally, Vine took the digital world by storm, drawing in over 200 million active monthly users before its closure in 2017. The app’s unique format of six-second looping clips not only captivated audiences but also paved the way for a new wave of internet celebrities and influenced the rise of video platforms such as TikTok. However, financial struggles led Twitter, now rebranded as X, to shut down the app.

The driving force behind this rebirth is Evan Henshaw-Plath, an early Twitter employee who goes by the moniker Rabble. Working closely with Dorsey, he dedicated months to meticulously retrieving videos from an archive that was established when Vine ceased operations. His efforts have successfully reconstructed between 150,000 and 200,000 videos, spanning content from approximately 60,000 creators, complete with user profiles, view counts, and some of the original comments.

The new project was spearheaded by Evan Henshaw-Plath, known online as Rabble, an early Twitter employee who worked with Dorsey. He spent months extracting videos from an archive created when Vine shut down and has reconstructed between 150,000 and 200,000 videos from roughly 60,000 creators, along with user profiles, view counts and some original comments.

The new platform, backed by Dorsey’s nonprofit “and Other Stuff,” takes a deliberately retro approach to social media. It bans AI-generated content entirely and runs on a decentralized protocol, aiming to recapture an era when social feeds weren’t dominated by algorithms and artificial intelligence.

“So basically, I’m like, can we do something that’s kind of nostalgic?” Henshaw-Plath told TechCrunch. “Can we do something that takes us back, that lets us see those old things, but also lets us see an era of social media where you could either have control of your algorithms, or you could choose who you follow, and it’s just your feed, and where you know that it’s a real person that recorded the video?”

The platform’s anti-AI stance is enforced through verification technology from the Guardian Project, a human rights nonprofit. The system checks whether videos were actually recorded on a smartphone rather than generated by artificial intelligence.

Original Vine creators who still own the copyright to their work can reclaim their accounts by proving they still control the social media profiles listed in their old Vine bios. Once verified, they can post new videos or upload old content that wasn’t captured in the restoration process. Creators can also request that their videos be removed through DMCA takedown notices.

The reboot comes as Elon Musk, the current owner of X, formerly Twitter, has also promised to revive Vine. Musk announced in August that his company had discovered the old video archive, but no public launch has materialized.

The app is currently available as a beta on iOS through TestFlight and as an Android APK download.