Over the past few years, internet users have expressed growing distrust and distaste toward dominant corporate social media sites like Facebook, Twitter (now X), TikTok, and YouTube. For some insight into this sentiment, one might point to Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of Twitter which was followed by a surge in hate speech on the platform (a trend that persisted until at least May 2023), Meta’s announcement to rollback content moderation just weeks before President Trump’s second inauguration, or the fact that TikTok is currently being held politically and legally captive by the country’s ruling elites, to name a few. Add to this list the growing amounts of data surveillance that is captured, repackaged, and sold by these social media companies daily, and the picture becomes even clearer. 

Despite these trends, digital connection is an indispensable part of social life in the twenty-first century; social media is a critical venue for cultural preservation, knowledge production, organizing, and resisting oppressive regimes. So the question arises, what are we left to use? Where else can we turn? 

While the definition of alternative social media is somewhat fluid (and, as Robert Gehl reminds us, the term “alternative” is both highly contested and historically situated ¹), it “can be seen as a critical response to CSM [corporate social media] that not only allows for users to share content and connect with one another but also denies the commercialization of speech, allows users more access to shape the underlying technical infrastructure, and radically experiments with surveillance regimes.” ² Further, Couldry and Curran argue that a key function of alternative media is that it challenges actual concentrations of media power that directly shape how we live, learn, and know.³

Alternative social media can be identified as having three common features: (1) they reject the idea that social media platforms should predominantly serve as profit-making enterprises, (2) many rely on non-centralized infrastructures to ensure that data is not trapped in large corporate servers, and (3) many alternative social media sites utilize free and open-source software–meaning that they “create and share tools that can be studied and changed by anyone to create a variety of social media platforms with different affordances.” ⁴ Additionally, alternative social media can be defined by content that serves narratives traditionally outside of the mainstream ethos–some of which can be liberatory, anti-racist, feminist, progressive, and queer, and some that can be discriminatory, sexist, homophobic, and hateful (though it can be argued that the latter is increasingly being absorbed into the mainstream discourse). 

Although it is important to note that not all alternative social media platforms seek benevolent ends, ultimately we–as users–have the power to decide which are deserving of our content and engagement. Here are a few that you might consider if you are looking to break away from CSM: 

1. Mastodon: Mastodon allows users to choose from a variety of independent servers centered on specific topics, themes, and interests. ⁵ It is open source, completely ad-free, and the platform does not allow for promoted content, offering a clutter and distraction-free environment. 
2. Bluesky: Bluesky is another decentralized platform that allows users to control their data and move between servers. There are no targeted ads and posts are free from algorithmic interference (though you can explore algorithm-driven feeds if you choose). 
3. Pixelfed: Pixelfed is an open-source image sharing platform, similar to Instagram, that is “decentralized, ad-free, [has] chronologically curated feeds by default, [is] respectful of user privacy, and [is] anti-surveillance.” ⁶
4. Cara: As an art-specific platform, Cara does not allow AI-generated images nor does it permit AI models to train themselves using any of the artwork shared on the platform. While the scope and use of this site is limited, it is a great option for artists looking to share, and also protect, their work. 

Studies have shown that highly consolidated ownership of media reifies existing power structures, prioritizes consumerism over citizenship, and promotes political conservatism. ⁷ In our current moment, faced with precarity, global struggle, and economic distress, alternatives are not just welcome, but necessary. Social media is being monopolized, but users cannot forget that we are the ones that hold the power. Non-corporate social media platforms stand to teach us about “different economies, governance structures, and aesthetics that are driven by goals other than profit;” ⁸ our only task is to make use of them. 

1. Gehl, R. W. (2015). “The Case for Alternative Social Media,” Social Media + Society, 1-12.
2. Gehl, p. 2.
3. Couldry, N., & Curran, J. (2003). The paradox of media power. In N. Couldry & J. Curran (Eds.), Contesting media power: Alternative media in a networked world (pp. 3-15). Oxford, UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
4. Frost-Arnold, K. (2024). “Beyond Corporate Social Media Platforms: The Epistemic Promises and Perils of Alternative Social Media,” Topoi, p. 1558.
5. Fourthwall, “8 Popular Alternatives to Typical Social Media Platforms,” https://fourthwall.com/blog/8-popular-alternatives-to-typical-social-media-platforms
6. Neyyar, R. (2025). “Appaled by X and Meta? Try These Social Media Alternatives,” Hyperallergic. https://hyperallergic.com/983623/social-media-alternatives-x-meta/
7. Gehl, p. 2.
8. Frost-Arnold, p. 1557.