Central Idea

Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has launched Threads, a Twitter rival, which is set to become a part of the fediverse.
While Meta’s move has garnered attention, the company is yet to reveal its plans for utilizing the fediverse to build a decentralized social network.

What is the Fediverse?

Network of Servers: The fediverse is a group of federated social networking services that operate on decentralized networks using open-source standards.
Third-Party Servers: It comprises a network of servers run by third parties, not controlled by any single entity. Social media platforms can utilize these servers to facilitate communication between their users.
Cross-Platform Communication: Users on social media platforms within the fediverse can seamlessly communicate with users of other platforms within the network, eliminating the need for separate accounts for each platform.
Media Platforms Using: Meta’s Threads is set to join the fediverse, along with other platforms like Pixelfed (photo-sharing), PeerTube (decentralized video-sharing), Lemmy, Diaspora, Movim, Prismo, WriteFreely, and more.

Decentralized Nature: Social media platforms adopt the fediverse to leverage its decentralized nature, giving users more control over the content they view and interact with.
Cross-Platform Communications: The fediverse enables easier communication between users of different social media platforms within the network.
Data Portability: Users can freely transport their data to other platforms within the fediverse, ensuring greater flexibility and control over their online data.

Scalability: Decentralized servers might face challenges in handling large amounts of traffic, leading to potential scalability issues.
Content Moderation: The decentralized nature of the fediverse poses difficulties in implementing and enforcing uniform content moderation policies across servers.
Data Privacy: Enforcing data privacy policies becomes more challenging since data posted on one server might not be deleted due to differing data deletion policies on other servers.

Long-standing Idea: The concept of the fediverse has been around for decades, with attempts made by companies like Google to embrace decentralized networks.
Emergence of Notable Platforms: Platforms like Identi.ca (founded in 2008) and Mastodon and Pleroma (emerged in 2016) have contributed to the development of the fediverse.
ActivityPub Protocol: In 2018, the W3 (World Wide Web Consortium) introduced the ActivityPub protocol, a commonly used protocol in applications within the fediverse.