Divine's Vine-revival bet: human 6-second videos, no AI slop, 100k users

Divine is a six-second looping short-video app launched publicly on 2026-08-20, after nine months of development and beta testing, by Evan Henshaw-Plath (alias Rabble), an early Twitter employee, with backing from Jack Dorsey. It is not affiliated with Vine or its former owner X, but it revives Vine's core format and gives users access to a library of more than two million original Vine posts preserved by volunteer internet archivists.

The bet is that nostalgia plus an anti-slop policy can win short-video attention: Divine bans AI-generated content and says it uses multiple detection methods to enforce the ban, publishes how its 'For You' algorithm works, and lets users pick topical feeds such as animals or style. Accounts run on decentralized infrastructure with key pairs rather than email or phone numbers, content stays portable to other decentralized platforms, and the underlying technology is open source so anyone can create their own community.

Traction came fast: founder Rabble told CNN the app had roughly 100,000 users by August 23, 2026, and E! Online reported more than 100,000 users within days of launch. Divine also announced its first brand partnership with Taco Bell during launch week, and the revival drew international coverage from CNN, E!, Hindustan Times, and Mashable within days. The open questions are retention and revenue: the app's no-central-server, user-owned-content design rules out the usual data-selling playbook, while the early Taco Bell partnership signals brands are already testing the platform.