Meta will be conducting a trial of a system that enables posts from its Threads microblogging platform to appear on other social media services, CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated on Wednesday. This much-awaited revelation is a major step forward for both Meta and the "fediverse"—a loose network of social media services that allow for the free flow of data, similar to how e-mail works.
In a post on Threads, Zuckerberg commented that "Making Threads interoperable will give people more choice over how they communicate and will help content reach more people. I'm quite positive about this." Prior to Wednesday, the fediverse consisted mainly of smaller, user-run social networks such as Mastodon, a Twitter-like service designed with the ActivityPub protocol—an open-source effort that has been actively going since 2017 and is immensely popular among fediverse devotees. Threads is an additional ActivityPub user, injecting a major boost into the project and introducing the biggest player to the fediverse yet. Additional sites that already have ActivityPub integration include Wordpress.com and Flipboard.
Evan Prodromou, the co-writer of ActivityPub, remarked that "Threads is undeniably the biggest commercial network to join this universe so far. It's really energizing. I'm speculating that this will be a continuous process, and that they will be doing this in weeks and months. It won't all be done today."
The fediverse, while not insignificant, is still far from Threads’ scope, with an estimated 11 million users, most of whom are on Mastodon. Zuckerberg indicated that Threads had achieved 100 million users after its first five days in July, although recent data suggests its activity has toned down somewhat. On Thursday, Zuckerberg said that Threads would be available in more European countries, which is timely given the possible legal repercussions that X (formerly Twitter) may face in Europe due to stricter regulations for large social media networks than in the U.S. In October, the EU declared they were probing into X's involvement in the Israel-Hamas dispute. Thursday saw a European activist instigating a complaint against X, alleging the company is breaching E.U. confidentiality statutes.
Zuckerberg described the crossover with ActivityPub as "a trial," without providing a firm timeline. Meta did not address inquiries for further explanation. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote on Threads that the platform is starting with the ability for users of other ActivityPub services to follow Threads accounts, and that functionalities that let Threads users to follow accounts elsewhere is in the works. If Threads succeeds in total ActivityPub integration, people will have the chance to observe Threads users and their posts without signing up for the platform—something that currently requires a Meta account.
Mike McCue, the co-founder and CEO of the newsreader Flipboard, posted on Threads that the network effect for ActivityPub is building up momentum at the moment. Given that more services are signing up with ActivityPub, more individuals, communities and content is being added to the network, making it more valuable for everyone. This development will supposedly accelerate more in the following months as Threads, Wordpress, Tumblr, Flipboard and other networks adopt ActivityPub.
In spite of the potential of a common fediverse, there are several challenges that come with its decentralized nature, such as difficulty in moderating the content, and potential problems in tackling misinformation and disinformation. Mozilla, the non-profit company behind Firefox, has already started an effort to explore the way content moderation functions in the fediverse.
Christine Lemmer-Webber, one of the authors and editors of ActivityPub, is enthusiastic about Threads joining the fediverse, yet worries that Meta's size could lead to it dominating the technology. She feared that Meta may enter the fediverse, be connected, and then "claim all of you have to do it their way or else".
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