Mashable: In recent months, a number of competing platforms have tried to take advantage of Twitter's problems.

New reports say that Meta is thinking about making a separate platform for sharing text updates. If Elon Musk's leadership of Twitter fails, this could be the most prominent new platform to compete with it.

A Meta representative said in a statement to CNN, "We think there's room for a separate space where creators and public figures can offer timely updates on their interests." Without really mentioning Twitter by name, this was essentially the platform's manifesto.

But why it makes more sense coming from Meta is because it could leverage its existing user base from its other platforms, such as Facebook's two billion daily users, which could prove useful for the company's next service. In recent months, a number of competing platforms have tried to take advantage of Twitter's problems, which include more downtime, the return of users who had been banned, and a drop in advertising revenue. Many of them saw an increase in users after Musk took over Twitter, but they have since struggled to achieve mainstream adoption.

A Twitter alternative may not have gone over well with the company's billionaire owner. A Twitter user initially tweeted a meme and questioned whether Zuckerberg opted to build a Twitter competitor because he believed that everyone disliked Musk but adored him and Facebook. Musk responded to his tweet with "Copy Cat," but he used a cat emoji in place of the letter "Cat" to show that he was referring to the emoji.

Platformer said that the platform will be decentralized, which means that users will be able to make their own rules for their servers or communities instead of relying on a single governing body like Meta. This is different from how Meta's other platforms usually work, but the idea is the same as on Reddit or Discord.

Meta's new platform may offer customers more than what Meta itself creates if it were decentralized, allowing third parties to add their own apps and functionalities. Platformer claims that Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri is overseeing the first stages of the P92 project.

Meta refused to give any more information than what was in its statement when asked about the new platform's possible features or when it would be released.

While ElonMusk completed his takeover of Twitter at the end of October. In the weeks that followed, the number of users on Mastodon, a decentralized social network that was started in 2016, went from 300,000 to more than 2.5 million. But in recent months, its growth has slowed. This is likely because users are having trouble getting used to the platform's decentralized nature.

Meta is also making changes to its older platforms so it can compete better with TikTok. For example, it is putting more emphasis on video and recommended content. In an interview with CNN from earlier this week, Facebook Chief Tom Alison said that the company is testing reincorporating messaging into the main app so that people don't have to download a separate app only to share things they see on Facebook.