Member-only story
SOCIAL MEDIA
What is Spill? A New Social Media Platform Attracting Black Twitter
It looks like Black Twitter finally found a new home.
Leadership on social media platforms matters because they help shape the culture online. It can mean the difference between people spending time on the site, creating content, connecting with others, and users running for the digital hills. Just last year, when Elon Musk bought Twitter, announcing his desire to embrace an absolute free speech policy, the vibe changed for the worse. Within the first twelve hours, there was "a nearly 500% increase in use of the N-word."
Racism on social media isn't new, but under Musk's leadership, bigots felt empowered to harass Black people with renewed vigor. Of course, this shift in leadership impacted more than users. Some Black Twitter employees were fired, while others left voluntarily. This year, former Twitter employees Alphonzo "Phonz" Terrell and DeVaris Brown launched a new social media platform, an alternative called "Spill," that is much more inviting to Black users. Spill, which uses the lingo of African American Vernacular English, characterized their platform as "visual conversations at the speed of culutre." Instead of following someone, you can sip the tea their serving up.
Major social media platforms are typically owned and operated by White people who benefit from Black culture but fail to respect or cater to the needs of Black people. Whether they realize it or not, there is a market for a platform that caters to Black people and other marginalized communities, where they can build community with one another, free from harassment and hate speech. Now, social media platforms like Spoutible and Spill, both owned by Black men, are challenging legacy sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. According to an op-ed in the Washington Post, the misinformation that spread on Facebook after the election contributed to the January 6th insurrection. Clearly, leadership on social media platforms can impact more than your timeline, the topics discussed and positions taken can undoubtedly spill over into the real world.
Researchers demonstrated that Facebook's "race-blind practices around hate speech came at the expense of Black users," under Musk's…
