ActivityPub and fediverse. Why is the whole internet (again) talking about it?

Fediverse – decentralized internet and truly social media

Everyone who had a chance to play with the new, Twitter-like application Threads from Meta, certainly came across a message saying:

"Future versions of Threads will operate in the fediverse".

We immediately reassure: it has little to do with the metaverse aggressively promoted by Mark Zuckerberg and even less with the operating model of Meta itself. On the contrary, the relatively new concept of fediverse describes an idea older than all social media, which dates back to the very beginnings of the internet. What exactly is it about?

Fediverse or fediwersum is a combination of the words federation and universe and refers to a set of applications, social services and websites connected by universal and open protocols, thanks to which all internet users can easily communicate with each other. It's just like if people who only have a Facebook account gained, for example, the ability to read posts on Twitter, comment on photos on Instagram and talk to TikTok users without having to create profiles in all these applications. What's more, they wouldn't have to rebuild their contact and follower networks on each of these platforms, because these networks would be universal and independent of the medium.

So, the fediwersum is in fact the opposite of the current model of social platform operation, in which giants like Meta create separate environments for monetizing unique content within a given application. Fediwersum is a truly social and decentralized network, separating the user interface from the data layer it is based on, and separated from specific entities. Currently, the best example of such a network is... email. After all, within its framework, all email address owners can send messages to any member of the network, regardless of which entity provides them with their services (Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail etc.).

ActivityPub protocol – this is what the future internet may look like

And here comes the aforementioned ActivityPub – one of the universal protocols on which the idea of fediwersum is largely based.

- In our vision, we wanted to create an internet based on peer-to-peer relationships - said in an interview with The Verge Christine Lemmer-Webber, one of the co-authors of the ActivityPub protocol. - Or at least one where a server failure will not have catastrophic consequences for users.

- Social media should not operate within one application, they should be part of something bigger - added Lemmer-Webber.

ActivityPub was established in 2018, and its application programming interface (API) indeed enables efficient exchange of content and notifications between independent servers. Importantly, it also allows for the complete transfer of users' digital identity from one service to another, which perfectly fits into the ideas associated with the fediverse: openness, lack of profit orientation and people orientation. Currently, the ActivityPub protocol is supported by platforms such as Mozilla, Tumblr, Flipboard, WordPress (through a special plugin) and above all Mastodon.

The latter is entirely based on this protocol, which is why it is considered the most popular example of the application of fediverse ideas in practice. Mastodon was created in the likeness of Twitter in 2016 and since then it has been gathering around itself supporters of decentralized internet and is widely regarded as a flagship example of a relatively large, independent social platform. Alongside it, there are also Pixelfed (decentralized Instagram) and PeerTube (decentralized YouTube), which however cannot boast similar popularity. Apparently, this is the direction that Meta also wants to follow with the premiere of its new Threads application.

– We are keen on building ActivityPub support into our app, the protocol behind Mastodon. Due to a number of complications associated with the decentralized network, we were not able to fully complete this functionality before launching Threads, but it will come into effect soon – assured in a press statement Adam Mosseri, the managing director of Instagram.

So, Meta sends a clear message: with the Threads application, it also wants to reach fediverse users. But what does this mean for the future of the decentralized internet itself?

Meta Threads – an application that will promote (or destroy) the fediverse

Eugene Rochko, the founder and head of Mastodon, sees this as a "clear victory of the cause" and hopes for an injection of new energy for the entire movement.

– The fact that large platforms [like Threads – ed.] are adapting to ActivityPub, is not only a confirmation of the movement towards decentralized social media. It is also an important step forward for people trapped on the largest platforms to be able to change service providers for better ones. This in turn will put pressure on the rest of the biggest players to provide better, less invasive services – Rochko wrote in a statement on the blog.

However, not everyone shares the optimism of the founder of Mastodon. Many fediverse users call the enthusiasm for Meta outright – betrayal. Among them is, for example, Vanta Black, who upon hearing rumors about Threads launched in spring 2023 the "Anti-Meta FediPact". It is a petition serving "defederation", i.e. blocking Threads services in the decentralized internet.

– I am an administrator of an instance in the fediverse. By signing this pact, I hereby agree to block all instances belonging to Meta, if they appear in the fediverse. This is a real and serious threat to the health and longevity of the "fedi" and it must be fought at every possible opportunity – we read on the petition page.

So far, Vanty Black's appeal has been signed by several thousand administrators gathered around smaller fediverse groups. However, its appearance has also raised questions about the essence of the system itself: can we talk about its openness in the situation of preventive blocking of Meta's services? However, this question currently divides not only the fediverse community, but also the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization that deals with establishing standards for writing and transmitting WWW pages. The answer to it will certainly define the shape of the entire internet in the coming years.