Avviso contenuto: If you're reading this, chances are, you're brand new to the idea of the Fediverse, and are just now hearing about it. Someone may have tried to explain it to you in the comments, saying "it's like email, but social!", leaving you no closer to deducing wh
If you’re reading this, chances are, you’re brand new to the idea of the Fediverse, and are just now hearing about it. Someone may have tried to explain it to you in the comments, saying “it’s like email, but social!”, leaving you no closer to deducing what it even means. Don’t worry – we’re here to help you go through the concepts, step by step, without making anything complicated.
The Fediverse (Federation + Universe) is an open communication network, built on top of the Web, where individual sites can talk to each other. A person on one site can follow someone else on another, and interact with them in a way that’s pretty similar to traditional social media.
An Easy Example
To make it even simpler: there was a time in the mid-2000’s where Facebook started to overtake Myspace in terms of popularity. For a while, it was common to have half of your friends in one place, and half of your friends in the other. Your Myspace friends couldn’t use Myspace to talk to their Facebook friends. There’s just no way to make those services talk to each other.
Tom and Mark could never follow each other this way.
At first, this seems kind of obvious. Well, duh, of course that’s not going to work! There’s no way for either site to connect or even understand each other. But if you think about it, there’s no real reason that services can’t talk to each other. They just need a common language and shared understanding to work.
That’s basically what ActivityPub is designed to do.
Wait, what is ActivityPub?
ActivityPub is what we call a federation protocol. Federation is the way that servers in this network talk to each other, and a protocol is just the shared language they use to make sense of each other. ActivityPub is just one effort to make this thing work – there have been others in the past, like OStatus or Zot, and there are other approaches currently in use, like the AT Protocol that Bluesky uses. Left: Mastodon, Right: Pixelfed. People on either app can talk to each other! Without getting too into the weeds: ActivityPub is designed around making different kinds of platforms capable of talking to each other.
Mastodon, for example, bears a passing resemblance to Twitter. Pixelfed looks a lot like Instagram. People on each platform can talk to each other and see each others’ stuff with very little friction. Mastodon users can even watch PeerTube videos from their timeline, and listen to Funkwhale music!
Left: watching a PeerTube video from Mastodon. Right: Listening to a Funkwhale track from Mastodon
It turns out that this is a really powerful idea! It’s possible to tear down walls between platforms, and with this new shared understanding, talk to each other natively.
Interacting with the Fediverse from Threads
The Fediverse is a big, big world: it spans nearly 20,000+ individual servers, the majority of which connect in some way, shape, or form. It can be exciting to explore, but navigating it can take some getting used to.
Can my Threads account connect to the Fediverse?
Kind of. Fediverse integration for Threads is still in Beta, and is mostly one-way at the moment. What this means is that people across the network can see your posts, and they can send likes back to you, but you can’t follow anybody or see their comments yet. Left: The President’s Threads account, as seen on Threads. Right: the same account, as seen on Mastodon. Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse are capable of following Threads users that have the integration turned on, provided that the Mastodon server operators haven’t blocked Threads. A lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of Meta being part of an open network, and some servers have blocked Threads completely.
So, I can’t follow anyone not on Threads?
Not at the moment. Fediverse users can follow your Threads account, see and boost your posts, and like them.
It’s kind of a weird choice on Meta’s part to do the integration this way, but it’s likely they wanted to prioritize broadcasting before they dug into the messier business of receiving.
Is there a way to see Fediverse replies to my post?
Actually, yes! It’s a workaround for the moment, but you can look up your profile on Mastodon to see the Fediverse replies. Mastodon.social currently lets you do this, and doesn’t require an account. Copy and paste your Fediverse username into the search form on Mastodon, and your Threads account will show up!
Keep in mind, this is an imperfect solution. This view simply shows you the responses that specific Mastodon server knows about. There are a number of servers that either don’t connect to each other, or don’t keep every reply on hand.
Do I have control over which servers my posts go to?
Privacy controls on Threads are still a bit limited, but it’s possible to block specific Fediverse users under Settings > Privacy > Block Users in the Fediverse.
Currently, it doesn’t look like there’s a way to block entire servers.
Joining the Fediverse Outside of Threads
After opening up sharing with the Fediverse from your Threads account, you might be curious about trying it out for yourself.
There’s a lot of cool stuff to do – which is why a big part of our site is dedicated to writing about the subject. Here’s a handful of questions that we’ve seen from Threads users already.
Why would I want to try the Fediverse elsewhere?
There are a couple of benefits that makes the wider network worth exploring. Let’s dig in!
Greater User Control
The Fediverse typically provides more control to end users regarding what they see, who they connect to, and how they share content online.
While you are still beholden to the admin of your server and the Terms of Service there, you’re far less likely to see a company like Meta restricting your articles, if you’re not on their servers. You can do your community, your way.
Tons of Communities
As a network, the Fediverse is a medley of different platforms, communities, and mediums. There are thousands of servers connected to each other, featuring academics, researchers, authors, musicians, artists, comedians, and more.
Diverse Experiences
The Fediverse already has analogs of most popular social networks:
There are also a lot of platforms that don’t have a direct thing to compare to, like Hubzilla, Misskey, and Emissary.
A lot of people are out there building the experiences they want to see, while plugging into a network that’s constantly getting bigger. A huge selling point is that they can work together.
Unique Apps
Out of all the Fediverse platforms out there, Mastodon currently has the most mobile apps. There’s a huge amount of variety – just look at all these!
Do I have to start my own server?
You don’t! While a lot of people do end up running their own servers, it’s never a requirement for participating. There are lots of community-run servers for just about every platform in the space.
Do you have resources for Mastodon?
We do! Here’s a comprehensive guide on Mastodon, with a ton of tips and insights on how to use the network to your advantage.
No problem! This is a living document, and we’re here to update the list as new things get asked. Comment below, or reply to us on Threads, and we’ll send a response and update this piece!
If you're reading this, chances are, you're brand new to the idea of the Fediverse, and are just now hearing about it. Someone may have tried to explain it to you in the comments, saying "it's like em
If you had told me as recently as two years ago that Meta was going to create a microblogging platform, I would have scoffed. If you had told me that same network would federate over ActivityPub, I would’ve laughed in your face.
But here we are. It’s happening. We’re no longer at a point where people can laugh and shrug it off. Meta is coming, and people are collectively losing their minds over it.
The question is, are they overreacting? Is there something to it? I’ve had to do a lot of reflection on the subject, and I’d like to break things down my thoughts. I think a lot of people are worried about how the Fediverse might ultimately change, but I think the transformation could alter the entire Internet for the better.
What are people worried about?
Generally speaking, most of the feedback I’ve been seeing boils down to about four different responses:
1. Meta is going to Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish the Fediverse
This is the most common response I’ve seen, and a lot of people that support this view point to XMPP’s dwindling support between Facebook and Google.
The theory goes like this: a company decides to support an open standard, because it’s a popular thing that people expect support for. Then, when that company’s offering hits a critical mass of users, they quietly kill off support for that standard and keep the people on their platforms.
This kind of thing isn’t completely unheard of, and dates back to the Microsoft playbook of the 1990’s, but the XMPP situation that many people refer to is a misrepresentation of what actually happened. While XMPP was open for anyone to implement, there’s little evidence to suggest that it was ever particularly popular, or that people were demanding it.
I am not open to your ahistorical take on Google Chat and XMPP.
Google didn't do anything wrong by using an open standard.
They didn't do anything wrong by building a good interface that people liked to use.
And they didn't do anything wrong by disconnecting from the network when the spam and harassment outweighed the benefit to their users.
We, the XMPP community, failed to capitalize on success by diversifying the network. It's our own fault not enough nodes were there.
The idea that XMPP had its thunder stolen by conniving businessmen is completely detached from reality. If anything, these businesses built an integration, saw that only a handful of its users actually took advantage of it, had to deal with an increasing amount of spam, and quietly killed it off with little fanfare.
After seven years, it’s evident that the rest of the industry is not moving to embrace this open system. If at some point in the future, the industry shows interest, we would then be open to discussions about developing an interface that’s designed for modern needs.
Threads could still decide that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze with ActivityPub, and reverse course at any time. Take a second to consider, however: it’s already bad enough when two instances sever user connections. People literally can’t follow their friends in the process. Even if the connection is later restored, those user connections may remain broken. It’s an action with huge consequences.
Verdict: Unlikely
The Fediverse is in a much different place now, compared to where XMPP was in the early 2000’s. Millions of people use it every day, and there’s a vibrant ecosystem of apps and platforms that empower hundreds of distinct communities all over the web.
If anything, it may be that Threads is looking to be a major player in the space, and hopes to benefit from an ecosystem shift by being the biggest project out there. Maybe that situation looks like developing a better API and clients than what Mastodon has, and getting other platforms to use it over MastoAPI.
Maybe Threads will develop some high-end infrastructure projects, to handle a vast amount of users. Who knows? It’s possible that Meta might make the GraphQL or React of Fediverse technologies at some point.
2. Threads will poison Fediverse culture
The idea goes like this: in addition to the sheer amount of brands and influencers chasing engagement, Threads allows hate speech, and is poorly moderated, to boot. Content is going to become more hostile, more aggressive, and more centered around chasing engagement.
I think instance admins wanting to protect their communities, and community members not wanting to see anything from Threads, is a totally fair position. The promise of the Fediverse is that individuals ought to be in charge of who and what they see on the network.
Stop Using Threads consumes a list of users and tells you which of those users interact with Threads. You can use it to remove Threads participants from your timeline.
You can find out the tool's opinion on you by entering your own name, or you can just Submit with default settings to find out about Gargron.
The problem is that there’s a movement of people who want to block anything and anyone that doesn’t choose to block Threads themselves. This kind of thing has been going on for a while, where a group of admins will choose to cut off connections to another server, because its federation policies allow connections that their own policies forbid.
A lot of people worry that this hysteria could lead to a massive fragmentation of the Fediverse, effectively doing Meta’s job for free. Either we’re all going to drown in the noise produced by Threads, or the networks will become increasingly isolated.
Verdict: Maybe
The Fediverse has been through a significant amount of cultural shifts over time, and people tend to forget how exactly the network has changed. Meta has dropped the ball on moderation several times over, and their decisions of what’s acceptable on their instance could end up establishing norms that didn’t exist before. It’s going to be up to users and admins over whether they want to deal with any of it.
Meta is going to harvest all of our data
It’s hard not to see this one, given Meta’s reputation with Facebook and Instagram. Even when the Threads app came out, people were quick to highlight the egregious data collection the app was doing. This still blows my mind. Left: Mastodon, Right: Threads Look, Meta is no doubt going to collect data from their own users, and use it for a variety of purposes. That’s covered by their EULA. But scraping public statuses to perform analytics, track people, sell data, and serve ads? Legally, that’s a sticky situation, when it comes to people who never signed a EULA with Threads or Meta.
Verdict: Maybe
Look, there’s nothing really stopping anybody from scraping public posts in the network and doing something with the resulting data. It’s not a great situation, and will likely be a sticking point when it comes to user consent.
On the other hand, though, Meta might find itself in legal hot water if it gets caught doing this. A class-action lawsuit might emerge, or a smaller network like Tumblr might give Meta grief over harvesting Tumblr data. Given the regulatory scrutiny Meta is facing from the EU, it might not be an action worth taking.
4. Threads is going to overrun us
This point is the least talked about, but the most concerning to me. It’s actually deeply worrying, because we don’t really have any good workaround yet.
Here’s the thing: Threads will bring over 100 million users to the Fediverse. Maybe not all at once, but it’s going to be the biggest instance, with the biggest footprint. We’re talking millions, maybe even billions of statuses federating out every day. It’s going to be bigger than all of Mastodon put together. The entire ecosystem and culture could shift.
One really big side effect stems from this: smaller servers could get hit hard. We’ve never been at a point where so many activities stemming from one place could pass through so much of the network. It could put many members on the network at a severe disadvantage, even if they blocked Threads entirely.
Verdict: Highly Probable
Look, the network’s been growing larger, at a faster rate, over the past 15 years of its existence. When it was initially built, nobody anticipated millions of concurrent connections passing data back and forth.
Even within the last few years, the size of the network has become unfathomable. Every time that a new migration from Reddit or Twitter or another popular app happens, the network strains and struggles to grow as tens of thousands of people pour into servers that originally only expected a few hundred inhabitants at most. The network scales, but we’re really bad at it.
What are the upsides?
There’s a lot of gloom and doom talk right now, but let’s focus on some positive changes that are happening right now: the network is vibrant, growing in variety, and becoming more mainstream and more available to the general population.
Everything, all at once
Going on the Fediverse right now, I can follow news publications, public companies, government officials, activist organizations, and collaborative projects. I can follow ESPN, the BBC, George Takei, and Indivisible. This is all in addition to the people I regularly talk to and interact with on the network.
As someone that joined Identica back in 2008, words cannot express how crazy this is to me. These aren’t just fake accounts or Twitter mirror bots. There’s journalists and celebrities and game developers and musicians and all sorts of other people actively using the network now.
Changing the Face of the Internet
But, it goes way further than just accounts on servers: Flipboard is incorporating ActivityPub into their platform directly. WordPress has a plugin, and Automattic made every WordPress.com blog capable of opting in. Medium has been testing the waters with their own Mastodon instance.
If Meta ends up becoming a part of the Fediverse, this development might just tip the scales, and inspire dozens of other platforms to participate. Suddenly, it makes more sense for Tumblr and Flickr to enter the fold, and dozens of entirely new platforms will emerge, too. Beyond just being a W3C standard, ActivityPub could crystalize into a de facto standard for social platforms.
What should we do?
Despite all of the gloom and doom talk, I’m cautiously optimistic. This situation might just be the push the Fediverse needs to step up on several of the shortcomings we inherited from Mastodon.
Build more resilient infrastructure
The massive success of Mastodon has brought the Fediverse to a whole new level, when it comes to the ecosystem and the amount of users taking part in it. Unfortunately, relying primarily on one dominant platform has introduced a lot of technical debt to how the Fediverse is currently built.
A very common trend I’ve seen with Fedi development personally is that a lot of important architectural decisions are made after their necessity becomes justified. GNU Social didn’t care about private statuses, because it was originally meant for public microblogging. Mastodon didn’t really care too much about scaling, until servers started experiencing large migrations of users. PeerTube didn’t really think about moderation tools, until users pointed out the need to mitigate online harassment.
We’re about to arrive at a point where hundreds of millions of people might be part of the network. Nobody optimized any architectural pieces, because nobody really thought it was going to happen anytime soon. But if Meta comes, other networks inevitably will, too. We need to figure out how to handle the load without pricing small server operators out of the equation.
Let users choose what they connect with
For some time, admins have been the deciding factor of which servers their users can federate with. From a protective stance, it makes sense: hard blocking can minimize interactions coming from bad servers. But, there’s sometimes disagreements on what constitutes “bad”, and who should get to make that call.
After some careful consideration, I have decided to block threads.net on pixelfed.social and .art by default
However, users will have the ability to unblock the domain
Soon we will be selectively enforcing authorized fetch for accounts with domain blocks so as to provide the best of both worlds.
(I'm also shipping a command for admins to easily add user domain blocks for all local users)
Pixelfed is leading the way with the development of a new feature: users can opt in to connecting to a domain, even if most of the instance doesn’t receive anything. Not only is this a great way forward, but it puts choice in the hands of users while still holding a general policy.
Build a proper ActivityPub Test Suite
The current situation with ActivityPub compatibility is not great: because Mastodon is the biggest platform in the space, everybody just does whatever Mastodon does. Devs literally just test against it, and hope for the best when it comes to being compatible with other platforms.
What do you think is going to happen when the de facto standard is going to be surpassed by something with a hundred times more users? Does it even make sense for developers to care about Mastodon’s API, if the user base is only a fraction of the size?
The ideal situation is for a platform-agnostic ActivityPub testing suite that everybody can test against to fix bugs, make sure federation works, and establish standard behavior. If we can get the main platforms of the Fediverse to test against this, we could probably get Meta to do it, too.
As I stated in my Mastodon Myths article, Mastodon’s security and privacy provisions are paper thin, lack granularity, and in some cases are easily subverted.
We can play whack-a-mole with blocklists, and pretend that there aren’t any problems, but developing user controls around consent are absolutely critical, especially if the network is about to grow nearly 100 times bigger. Bonfire’s concept designs for circles and boundaries. Check it out. Mastodon can look to platforms like Hubzilla and Bonfire with ideas on how to implement controls like this. Who can look at a status? Who can respond, or share it around? Who can message me directly? We need to empower users, and standardize those conventions.
Conclusion
Change is scary, especially when so many details appear to shift in direction and polarity. Threads being a part of this place feels like a paradox to some, and sacrilege to others. None of us want to see the Fediverse turn into a toxic dumping ground for the worst that social media has to offer. Nobody wants the Googles of the world to hijack an Internet standard.
A part of me remains incredibly optimistic: the Fediverse might actually hit an inflection point that transforms the entire Internet for billions of people. In our battle against social siloes and surveillance capitalism, we might find that the Fediverse won.
This still blows my mind. Left: Mastodon, Right: Threads
Source: FediDB
admins to easily add user domain blocks for all local users)
Bonfire’s concept designs for circles and boundaries. Check it out.
