At some point in the last year, you've probably come across the term "fediverse." You may have read for him here at iGuru.gr or you've seen some "internet ancients" talking on their blog about what they hoped the internet would be like in 1993. Maybe someone sent you the article "Protocols, Not Platforms" so you think they're smart.
The fediverse is a bit like HTTP or the nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio in the air: very important, it's all around us, but it's not something we have to think about every day. But fediverse can really change the Internet.
Table of Contents
So what is fediverse?
It is an interconnected social platform ecosystem based on an open protocol called ActivityPub that allows you to transfer your content, data and followers between networks.
What?
OK, let's try again.
fediverse is like you took X, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook and made them all interoperable so you can post anything from anywhere and all your followers will be guaranteed to see it. And if you wanted to leave one platform for another, you could bring all your content, all your followers, everything with you.
Is it a new social network?
It's actually a lot of new social networks! There's already a lot in the fediverse, and more to come. Interconnection is the thing: instead of having all your stuff on Facebook or other stuff all on X, fediverse allows its social networks to interoperate.
All of this is based on a decades-old idea of how the Internet should work and a protocol that has existed in some form since 2014.
Why now;
Over the past couple of years, many have become acutely aware of the fact that social platforms are not stable. Consider how Twitter changed when Elon Musk bought it. Many who had found a community on Twitter suddenly discovered that this is not Twitter.
Meanwhile, millions of creators who spent years building followings and businesses on these platforms are discovering how quickly it can all disappear. Algorithms change, company priorities change, and suddenly, one day you're viral on TikTok and the next you're buried in the feed.
So people are looking for platforms that won't crash. That if they want to leave for somewhere else, they can take not only their posts but their entire list of followers with them. Who won't be cut off from all their communities just because they delete an app.
You know how everyone online is like: “Give me your email, it's the only constant thing on the web and therefore the most important tool for building a lasting audience”. fediverse offers the same stability because all your stuff is yours — its apps just borrow it.
Why should I care about any of this?
Think about everything you follow, or the fact that you have a long history of Instagram posts that are unrelated to your TikTok or Facebook or YouTube or wherever.
Wouldn't it be better if they were all in one place, controlled by you, and could be moved from app to app and platform to platform as you please?
You won't need to be in a hundred different apps with a hundred different algorithms just to get the content you're interested in. And the places where you connect with your friends or make a living as a creator couldn't be irrevocably destroyed by a billionaire with crazy ideas.
The ActivityPub protocol I mentioned before is a bit like email: it has specifications for senders and receivers and supports many different kinds of content. It produces what you might call “posts” in a universally understandable format.
Think of ActivityPub as a giant bucket of content. All posts, likes, comments, followers, everything all in the bin. Every time someone posts from any of the apps I just mentioned, it goes into the bin.
More in the next post on fediverse.
