Meta’s social media app ‘Threads’ to be a ‘Fediverse’ platform – What does it mean?

Meta’s highly anticipated text-based app, Threads, was finally made available to the public on 5th July 2023, following much speculation. Positioned as a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter, Meta expressed their vision for Threads to be compatible with an open social networking protocol in a blog post. This means that the posts made on Threads will be accessible through other applications as well. Currently, users have the option to sign up for Threads using their existing Instagram accounts, enabling the seamless transfer of pictures, followers, and other similar information from their profiles.

Meta also announced their collaboration with ActivityPub, a protocol widely adopted by decentralized networks such as Mastodon, as part of their commitment to this endeavor.

What is Threads?

Threads, an app designed for public text-based conversations, was developed by the creators of Instagram. The app became available to users across iOS and Android devices in more than 100 countries this week. The overwhelming response to Threads reportedly took Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg by surprise, as per Bloomberg’s report, with the app surpassing an impressive milestone of 100 million sign-ups within a mere week of launch.

To put the numbers into perspective, Twitter had an estimated 368 million monthly active users worldwide as of December 2022, according to Statista. In contrast, Instagram boasts an impressive user base of over two billion monthly active users.

Threads proved to be an early hit almost immediately. In the first two hours, it hit 2 million users and steadily climbed from there to 5 million, 10 million, 30 million, and then 70 million before crossing the 100 million mark. The launch has been “way beyond our expectations,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday. On Monday, Zuckerberg said in a Threads post confirming the milestone that the growth was “mostly organic”.

How does Threads work?

Threads seamlessly integrate with a user’s existing Instagram account. To access Threads, users are required to sign up through Instagram, enabling them to retain their original username and maintain their connections with the accounts they were previously following on Instagram.  Several settings, including blocking, user restrictions, and word filters, are synchronized between the two platforms.

However, it’s important to note that if a user chooses to discontinue using Threads, they can only deactivate their Threads account. Deleting Threads would result in the deletion of their entire Instagram account. Users can expect to see content from the accounts they follow on both Instagram and Threads, along with recommended content tailored to their interests.

There are also plans to let users choose to see only the accounts they follow. There is also no way to privately message others on Threads yet.

It is evident that Meta has grander aspirations for Threads and intends for it to establish communication with other social platforms. This ambitious vision will be realized through the implementation of the “Fediverse.” Meta’s ecosystem of apps includes Facebook, Instagram, and now Threads. But the Fediverse goes beyond them.

Meta and Fediverse

If you were among the 30 million users who signed up for Threads on its first day, you probably came across a brief explanation page providing an overview of what to anticipate from this new social media app. The page clarified that Threads is integrated with the Instagram platform and mentioned the terms of service and privacy policy.

However, there was an additional explanation from Threads that left some users puzzled. It stated that future versions of Threads will be compatible with the ‘Fediverse’, a novel kind of social media network enabling individuals to follow and interact with each other across various platforms, such as Mastodon.

As far as explainers go, it was admittedly pretty brief. Fortunately, Meta put out an in-depth overview of the Fediverse and how it will work in the future.

What is the Fediverse?

“Fediverse” refers to a cluster of distinct social media platforms that are interconnected and capable of seamless communication. Users on these platforms can engage with one another as they are using a single social network platform.  The underlying framework supporting the Fediverse is the ActivityPub protocol, which serves as the architectural foundation for this interconnected network of platforms.

ActivityPub was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and it allows the creation of a federal system that essentially serves the same formula as social networking platforms, but with a lot more freedom and no centralisation limits.

No Boundaries or a single master

While Threads currently functions as a standalone social media platform, similar to Instagram or Facebook, in the Fediverse, it would exist as a server among many others.

Although each server within the Fediverse may have its own unique rules and policies, they would be able to communicate with each other — there is no walled garden. This means that even if you have an account on Threads, you can still post and interact with content on another server like Mastodon. Essentially, you can envision the Fediverse as an interconnected web of different online social spaces.

An analogy to understand this concept is email. It doesn’t matter if you have a Gmail account or use Outlook, you can still send and receive messages with a Yahoo account. This interoperability is made possible through protocols like ActivityPub, which connects the servers within the Fediverse.

While interoperability remains the biggest perk of the Fediverse, it also offers a host of other benefits. Unlike other centralized platforms where one entity decides the rules and controls your data, the Fediverse eliminates this concept. Once the walled garden problem is solved, you can get a taste of other social products as well — without fully committing an account or separate user login to it.

Currently, Threads is not part of the Fediverse, but it will be in the future. Once that happens, Threads and Mastodon, for example, will become technically interoperable.

In the blog, Meta said that Threads will soon be made compatible with ActivityPub to make Threads interoperable with other apps that support the ActivityPub protocol, for example Mastodon and WordPress, “allowing new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today”.

In a post speaking about decentralised platforms like Fediverse, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said, “You may one day end up leaving Threads, or, hopefully not, end up de-platformed. If that ever happens, you should be able to take your audience with you to another server. Being open can enable that.”

Meta’s blog further added that open social networking supported by the Fediverse can help developers build new types of features and user experiences which can be plugged into other open social networks for faster innovation. “We believe this decentralized approach, similar to the protocols governing email and the web itself, will play an important role in the future of online platforms”.