T2 Challenges Twitter With Its New Verification Program

The seed-funded Twitter rival, T2, introduces a new verification program. While Elon’s Twitter has focused on making money through its services, T2 is seemingly trying to use the loophole. The platform has started targeting those who have lost their social presence because of Elon’s tweaked Twitter policies. The said verification program probably indicates T2’s intention to replace Twitter in the coming days.

Besides launching their new verification program, the company hired Discord’s former senior director of engineering, Michael Greer. Greer is currently serving the organization as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Greer was initially a director of engineering at Discord. His job included several different areas like growth, revenue, community servers, design systems, apps, etc. Discord later promoted Greer to senior director of engineering. Before joining Discord, Greer used to be the chief technical officer at the Onion and Tapp Media.

With his new role in T2, Geer is now responsible for supervising the organization’s development team and guiding its technological growth.

The T2 cofounder, Cselle, is pretty optimistic about Michael. He believes that Michael and his teams helped Onion and Tapp build platforms that created engagement from numerous users. For Discord, Michael has helped teams to make innovative tools for maintaining civility and safety.

T2’s Rise

T2 emerged with a simple idea from a former Google and Twitter professional, Gabor Cselle. He bought a $15 Moleskine notebook for sketching out new startup ideas. On the first page, he wrote T2 and started exploring ways to launch a better version of Twitter. Besides working at both companies, Cselle has sold startups to Google and Twitter. However, he was unsure how to drag people away from Twitter and make them test T2, so he put the idea aside.

The platform attempted its first lines of code in November 2022 and then raised a $1.1 million fund in January 2023.

Then, Elon stepped into the scene and took over Twitter. Elon’s version of Twitter somehow pushed away users from the platform, and Cselle cleverly leveraged this opportunity. Over time, T2 adapted to many positive changes.

Besides Cselle, T2 has Sarah Oh as the other cofounder. She was Twitter’s former human rights advisor. Sarah has extensive experience and was a part of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica-focused crisis team.

Oh joined Michael’s venture because T2’s possibilities enticed her. She found the project completing enough to build from scratch. Oh believes T2 features enough space for growth, and the platform holds the potential to close the enforcement gap. She claims the platform works with clear and rigid rules to keep its environment transparent and thriving. According to Oh, this clarity will further help T2 with more scalability in the future.

This web-only app allows users to write short posts, add photos, post replies, or repost content.

Presently, T2 features a Twitter clone-like look. In addition, it features a visible reporting mechanism that is enhanced with a flag icon. Users can find it under every post. Like Twitter, T2 features a simple follower/following model for network building. According to Oh, the platform is currently in beta, rolling out different community invites to enrich the network.

The platform recently debuted a new verification process named the get the check mark program. Unlike Twitter Blue, it doesn’t involve any subscription fee.