2024-01-20 15:03:00
There are more and more alternatives to X, but messages are also becoming more widespread. There is a way to bring services like Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon together: it fediverse. But it will take some time before that happens.
In het kort
- Het fediverse kan de versplintering in het socialemedialandschap oplossen. Het verbindt verschillende X-alternatieven aan elkaar, zodat berichten van Mastodon-gebruikers bijvoorbeeld ook op Threads zijn te lezen.
- Demissionair staatssecretaris Alexandra van Huffelen (Digitalisering) zegt Meta te willen aansporen om in de komende maanden te regelen dat Threads samenwerkt met Mastodon.
- Niet iedereen zit op die koppeling te wachten. Critici hekelen tekortkomingen in de moderatie van Threads, waardoor onder meer transfobie en fatshaming wijdverspreid raken.
For those who don’t immediately remember it clearly, you can think of the fediverse as an interwoven network of different apps, all of which can read and write the same content. It is a group of social networks that all communicate with each other.
The fediverse is often compared to how email works. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Gmail or Outlook account. It doesn’t matter which mail app you use. An email to a different address always arrives. All these services talk to each other.
Ultimately, social media platforms need to work the same way. You post on Threads and someone else can read it on Mastodon. As a user, you choose which app works best for you. Or which conditions suit you best. On which platform do you prefer to leave your personal information? In principle, it is even possible to set up a server yourself and keep it completely under your own control.
State Secretary wants to link services
Currently, services such as Bluesky, Mastodon and Threads exist separately. You need separate accounts to be active on the services. And on each platform you have to post and follow people separately. That is clumsy, cumbersome and causes fragmentation among users.
“I would like to urge Meta to make haste and arrange in the coming months so that Threads can collaborate with Mastodon,” outgoing State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Digitalization) told NU.nl. “In view of recent developments on the platforms, I assume that due to developments on X, more and more citizens, media, scientists and companies will use alternatives.”
The government has had its own Mastodon environment since June last year. This is a test environment that can currently be used by about twenty organizations. In the first quarter of this year, it will be evaluated whether the presence on the platform is satisfactory. “I personally experience that the responses and posts on the Mastodon platform differ positively from responses and posts I receive on platform X,” says Van Huffelen.
All platforms must speak the same language
Threads and Mastodon work with the same protocol: ActivityPub. This allows them to be connected. Bluesky uses its own AT Protocol, which apps can connect to. But that does mean that Bluesky does not communicate with Threads and Mastodon. That is actually not desirable either.
“Federative structures exist by the grace that the computers speak the same protocol,” says Marleen Stikker, internet pioneer and director of Waag Futurelab, a research institute in the field of technology and society.
“The internet itself and applications such as the World Wide Web and e-mail are good examples of this. This went wrong with social media. They became closed platforms. The Activitypub protocol solved that problem. But if Bluesky now opts for a different protocol, then it doesn’t work.”
This makes the social media landscape fragmented, says media theorist and internet critic Geert Lovink of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. “This phase is a kind of confusing software renaissance from which something new can emerge.”
Zuckerberg also says he wants more competition
Lovink calls the fediverse a thought experiment for the time being. According to him, whether Threads will actually be connected to other services is first seen and then believed.
By the way, Instagram, which includes Threads, makes that promise out loud. “Our vision is that Threads will allow you to communicate with people on other platforms in the fediverse that we don’t own and control,” the company said. his site.
Mark Zuckerberg previously said against The Verge also to believe in the fediverse. “Not everyone wants to use one product,” he said. According to him, his company will benefit more if people prefer to use another platform, but can still talk to people on his services.
Breaking away from big tech doesn’t happen in a day
Not everyone is looking forward to the connection of Threads with Mastodon. This is what Waag Threads’ Mastodon server does. “We see the same misery occurring on Threads as on other platforms,” says Stikker. “Threads lacks accurate moderation, and that is a prerequisite for us to federate.”
Many people on other services also complain about the provocative messages that Threads recommends to them. For example, there would be transphobia and fat shaming, which Instagram does little about.
Still, Stikker hopes that more companies and organizations will make the switch to the fediverse. They can set up environments over which they have control and responsibility, instead of large tech companies.
“Van Huffelen has taken major steps towards this through the Dutch government,” she says. “The next step is for the federated platforms to become the primary place where governments and other organizations share their messages. Then you get others on board.”
Although things are not yet booming on the Fediverse, there is movement. “We have come out of thirty years of online misery. It will take a while before a turnaround is made,” says Stikker. “But the argument has been the same for years: do not be dependent on commercial parties. Tech is not neutral, so think about your choices. Choose platforms that attach great importance to public values such as privacy and do not work with the wrong algorithms .”
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