Threads to be a fediverse platform – what does it mean?

After a long speculation, Meta released its text-based app Threads to the public yesterday. Popularly positioned as rival to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, Threads breached the 44 million registered users mark in under just 24 hours. 

In the introduction blog, Meta said that Threads is envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol. This means that posts made on Threads will be accessible from other apps too. At present, users can sign up for Threads using existing Instagram account, transferring pictures, followers, and other similar information from their profiles. Towards this, Meta said that it will work with ActivityPub, a protocol will is used by decentralised networks like Mastodon.

While ActivityPub is currently not supported by Threads, Meta has referenced fediverse, a term that pops up in Threads’ supplement terms on signing up for on the platform.

What is fediverse?

Fediverse is portmanteau of the words federation and universe. It can be considered as a collection of a several independent social media platforms that ‘speak’ to each other. Users on these servers can interact with each other as if they were using a single social network platform.  ActivityPub protocol that acts as the underlying architecture for fediverse.

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 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”.

Privacy and user data

Moving beyond the ‘open’ nature of Threads, user privacy seems to emerge as a big challenge for the new social media platform.

For iOS users, Threads may be collecting sensitive information like precise location, browsing history, contacts, and even health data. That said, Android users may not be required to hand out such extensive data to Threads.

iOS or Android, choice of mobile operating system not withstanding, Threads will not be launched in the European Union for the ‘foreseeable future’. A spokesperson for Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) said that the new platform will not be rolled out in EU which governed by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), world’s strictest data protection and privacy law. Notably, Threads platform imports data from Instagram, including behavioural and advertising information.

Meta is already prohibited from launching advertising services on WhatsApp using data from sister sites Facebook and Instagram.