Users have been seeking out new social media alternatives since Elon Musk acquired control of Twitter and fired thousands of employees, among other radical changes he made to the company and the platform itself. Now that Musk has also started implementing the policy of not promoting any alternative social media platforms on Twitter. Two ex-Twitter employees, Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell and DeVaris Brown who met during orientation on their first day working at Twitter have launched a new social platform they’re calling Spill in an invite-only beta on the App Store.
Spill is a visual-first, multimedia microblogging app that works a lot like Twitter. The app opens on the main feed which includes recent posts from people you follow, as well as algorithmically served posts. The app lets you post text, GIFs, videos, photos, links, and polls, and you can easily see what is trending on the app, and react to content posted by others. At first glance, Spill looks a lot like Twitter. But what sets the platform apart is its deliberate mission to build for diverse communities.
Terrell, served as the platform’s global head of Social & Editorial until last month, when he was one of thousands of employees laid off upon Elon Musk’s takeover. Brown was a product manager lead at Twitter working on machine learning but left Twitter in 2020 to found Meroxa, a Series A startup that makes it easier for companies to build their data pipelines.
As Black creatives and technologists working in social media, Terrell and Brown have watched as Black women, queer people, and other diverse communities have powered new trends on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, only to be overlooked. In the same way that Black founders are unfairly dismissed in venture capital, Black content creators have had their work stolen and earn fewer brand deals than White creators, studies have shown.
On every other platform, culture drivers — Black and Brown folks, marginalized folks, queer folks — have had to kind of elbow to create space. We’re starting off with them at the front of the line, and we think that’s going to create a really healthy ecosystem.”
Kenya Parham, Spill Global VP of Community and Partnerships
Spill hopes to encourage positive-only behavior on its platform by giving users a “rep score.” A high “rep score” comes with benefits, like access to new features before everyone else. Terrell added that scores like this exist internally in most social apps, but they just aren’t shown to the user. On Spill, you can see your rep score, but other people cannot see yours.
We wanted to incentivize the positive, nontoxic behavior and really reward people for being consistent, active, contributing members to the platform without necessarily having to feel like you need a massive follower count.
Alphonzo Terrell, Spill Co-founder and CEO
Feeling ready to Spill? You can sign up for the waitlist here.
