Black Twitter Exodus: What Is Spill?

In the wake of another chaotic situation caused by Elon Musk, Black Twitter users are making a move to the new Spill social media platform in droves.

On Saturday (July 1st), Twitter users were greeted with an error message that either said “Rate limit exceeded” or “Cannot retrieve tweets.” Musk stated in a tweet that users who were unverified would only be able to read 600 posts a day, but Twitter Blue subscribers would be able to view 6,000 a day. For Black Twitter, that was the last straw in what many felt was the Tesla and Space X CEO’s continual disrespect, prompting many to sign up for Spill.

Spill is a social media platform with the purpose of creating a safe space for diverse communities with a distinct focus on Black women and LGBTQ+ communities. The app had recently launched its beta version on June 19th. It was created by Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell and DeVaris Brown, former Black Twitter employees who were let go in the wake of Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the social media platform. “Our thesis was if we could build a platform from the ground up that caters to these groups, these culture drivers, and then solve the core problems that they’re facing, that our community is facing more specifically, that would make for a better experience for everyone,” Terrell said in a recent interview. The exodus of Black Twitter users, including numerous famous figures such as Keke Palmer and Desus Nice has propelled Spill to be number one in Apple’s App Store as of Monday (July 3).

Spill is styled as a microblogging app with a visual-first approach, with users being able to select from four colorways for their home page. Instead of Twitter’s 140 characters per tweet, each post or “spill” is set at 90 characters but users can get creative with images and GIFs, and even short videos in their posts. Spill is currently invite-only for new users, and is only available on iOS devices, which has spurred some complaints from those using Android devices. But many who’ve made their way to the app are praising it for its diversity and fun factor, as well as the dedication to keeping it a safe space for everyone. Hashtags such as #SpillMigration and #Spillionaires were in wide use on the app, with many more on Twitter making public requests for invite codes.