They were once popular social media sites – what happened?

(NEXSTAR) – With the stroke of a pen, President Joe Biden has apparently begun the countdown to the end of TikTok. While it’s possible the app won’t actually be banned in the US, the platform’s potential demise has some social media users reflecting on those we’ve lost.

Here’s a look at the social media sites that have been pulled from the annals of the Internet archives.

My space

What better place to start than MySpace, probably the first major social networking site?

If you were a young Internet user in the 2000s, there’s a good chance you had a MySpace account. Users could stylize their (you guessed it) digital space with media, music, and messages with just a little coding.

From 2005 to 2008, Myspace largely reigned as the most popular destination online. Then she came face to face with a serious opponent: Facebook. Although both received about 115 million visitors per month in 2008, Facebook’s growth in the following years would be too much for Myspace to compete with, Lifewire recounts.

You can still access My space — which is now part of the People/Entertainment Weekly Network, according to its website — but it’s not what it once was. You’ll find articles from 2021 on their homepage, and many images and links appear broken. Your “first friend” Tone It’s also still accessible, but it hasn’t posted on the platform since 2013 either.

Friend

Before MySpace became successful, however, some used Friendster. Launched in 2002, the site was similar to its imminent competition, but with more emphasis on dating. However, it was short-lived and was considered nearly extinct in 2006, USA Today reportsciting a 2013 report to study on Friendster.

The platform It sold to MOL Global, one of Asia’s largest Internet companies, in 2009, and users (at least those who stuck around) saw their data purged in 2011. That same year, Friendster was relaunched as a gaming site. Seven years later, the site was finally closed.

The site appears to be preparing for a comeback, but cybersecurity experts warn that the lack of fanfare and additional information makes it suspicious.

Vine

While Gen X and Millennials had Myspace, Gen Z (and younger Millennials) found themselves browsing Vine. Launched in 2013, the video-based app was a quick hit, offering users a seemingly endless supply of short, looping clips. Months before its launch, Twitter bought the start-up for US$30 million.

Three years after its launch, Vine announced that it would be interrupted. At the time, the application was losing many of its creators to competitors like YouTube and Instagram. Twitter initially offered an archive of all Vine videosbut what it has since also disappeared.

A week after completing the acquisition of what was then Twitter for US$44 billion, Elon Musk interviewed users about a Vine’s potential return. Despite almost 70% of more than 4.9 million voters expressing support, the application did not return. However, with a potential TikTok ban brewing, users can once again do so “for Vine.”

Google+

Google can do a lot of things, like answer your vague questions and direct you to the nearest coffee shop, but as it turns out, it couldn’t support a social media platform.

In 2011, the company launched Google+. Similar to Facebook, users could share messages and photos with their followers. Unlike Facebook, Google+ allowed users to group their friends into circles that functioned almost like group chats.

In 2018, Google announced that it would close the platform citing security concerns in the middle of a data breach. The website is no longer accessible, with the URL leading users to updates in Google Workspace.

Of course, there are other Internet icons that we have lost in recent decades. Early adopters may remember AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM, which offered online messaging for 20 years. This disconnected “for the last time” in 2017. Some programmers tried to bring him backin a sense, but those ones efforts appear to have fallen.

If you’re an avid fan of relic social sites, you may have noticed that one frequently listed name is missing from this list: Yik Yak. The app was launched in 2013 and allowed users (primarily in high school and college) to post anonymously. He quickly achieved success, but was frequently viewed as a space for bullying, harassment and threats, leading several schools to ban it. As USA Today reports, Yik Yak began to lose popularity in 2016 and closed a year later.

Last year, Sidechat, a platform also dedicated to anonymous posts, acquired Yik Yak, that was resurrected in 2021 under new ownership. Yik Yak it was revamped after the most recent acquisition, according to TechCrunch, but it wasn’t very well received. The application is also not available for Android users.

It’s too early to say whether TikTok will go the way of Vine and Myspace or Yik Yak. Its China-based parent company, ByteDance, is expected to fight the ban enacted by the bill signed by Biden. This legislation requires ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban on the app in the US starting early next year.

ByteDance characterized the law as a violation of the free speech rights of its users, most of whom use the app for entertainment.

“We believe that the facts and the law are clearly on our side and that we will ultimately prevail,” the company wrote on the X social platform.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.