by now you've probably heard of meta's Twitter clone threads it had explosive growth in its first week of existence only to crash back down to earth and while it's too soon to know if threads will end up being a viable alternative to Twitter I mean X it could still play a significant role in the future of social media for now the biggest sign is the threats.net URL at the top of every profile soon you'll be able to follow and interact with people on other fediverse platforms like Mastodon it says if you don't yet know what
the federal verse is it's a collection of decentralized social media platforms that serve as alternatives to mainstream social media like Twitter Reddit and Facebook Platforms in the fediverse run on an open source protocol called activity Pub so when meta says that threads will also support activity Pub this means that content from other fediverse platforms could be accessible from that app as well by all accounts this integration isn't coming anytime soon meta has said that there's a lot of work they need to do to get threads which was built on Instagram to support activity Pub but
it's still enticing to some fediverse fans threat's supportive activity Pub could enable millions of people to access content from across the fediverse overnight it would also allow threads users to Port their identity and their followers over to another app in the fediverse considering Mastodon currently the biggest platform in the federal verse only has about 2 million active users this could be a very very big deal but the thing about the federverse right now is it's not that big Macedon which is like a decentralized version of Twitter has a dedicated community of users behind it many
of them are on mastodon.social the instance run by the non-profit Zone staff but there are thousands of other servers maintained by users these can be general interest forms or dedicated to specific interests and topics each of these servers has its own rules and the admins behind them are responsible for enforcing them but even if you're on a smaller server for nature lovers or expats living in Japan you can still View and interact with users from other servers but what does decentralized social media even mean at its core decentralized social networks mean no single company or
entity controls the platform or its users and the apps and servers that make up the fediverse are interoperable some fans compare it to the early days of the web before wild Gardens were the norm Mastodon is the biggest and most influential service in the fediverse but there are also open source alternatives to YouTube Instagram and Reddit these Federal apps are still pretty small but they've been gaining in popularity over the last year other mainstream platforms have also started to take note Tumblr has set able support activity Pub so has Flipboard the newsreading app companies like
Mozilla medium and the BBC have also started their own instances on Mastodon to build a community of fediverse fans other protocol-based social networks have also been growing Blue Sky another Buzzy Twitter like service has been downloaded more than a million times since its launch its creators are building a different decentralized protocol called the at protocol domus which has been promoted by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has gained a following among privacy and crypto enthusiasts it's built on a protocol called Noster and While Blue Sky and domus aren't technically part of the fediverse they share a similar
Vision untethering social media from giant corporations that depend on advertising and our data that vision isn't new but it's gaining momentum users are increasingly distrustful of companies like Reddit meta and X over the last year both Twitter and Reddit have cracked down on developers using their apis on Twitter this killed popular third-party clients that many users had used for years these unpopular policy changes have also highlighted the appeal of decentralized alternatives and they can seem a lot more appealing because users have more control over the platform then there's meta whose Services already reach billions of
people supporting an open source protocol like activity Pub could make them seem a little friendlier to would-be competitors or they could just be hedging their bets just in case the federal verse really takes off that may be why not everyone in the fediverse is excited for meta to join some Mastodon servers have pledged to block threats or do Federate entirely but Mastodon CEO Eugen rashko says that meta's involvement is proof decentralized social media is working this is a clear victory for our cause he said so what do you think is decentralized social media the future
or is it just another passing fad let me know what you think in the comments and if you like this video subscribe to Engadget for more news thank you [Music]
