• by Todd Wasserman , April 3, 2023

As many teens ditch Facebook, the focus has shifted to TikTok. But as the U.S. government moves ahead with its plan to ban TikTok use, some are looking to alternative social media platforms.

Here are a few that are getting noticed in early 2023:

P92: As Twitter becomes a mouthpiece for Elon Musk, Meta is reportedly developing a decentralized social media platform code-named “P92.” P92 is is said to be an offshoot of Instagram that can be accessed via the same login credentials.

Omegle: “The Internet is full of predators,” reads a headline from Mother Jones. “Omegle lets you meet them.” Like Chatroulette, Omegle pairs you with random people on the Internet. Of course, this makes Omegle a natural draw for sexual activity.

Mastodon: In the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, some users have jumped to Mastodon. Unlike Twitter, which is operated by one centralized entity, Mastodon uses thousands of distributed servers. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon doesn’t run ads and it is considered easier to find like-minded communities on Mastodon than Twitter.

Reddit: Reddit is not a new social network, but is a natural place for people disaffected with Twitter. It is divided by subgroups known as subReddits that cater to pretty much every interest out there.

BeReal: BeReal is a social media app open to users over 13. Its popularity prompted TikTok to launch TikTok Now, a feature designed to fend off BeReal. BeReal prompts users at a random time each day to capture a photo or video of whatever they’re doing at the time.