The fediverse is a group of federated social networks that allow users of a service to communicate with users of the other services, typically using the ActivityPub protocol. The fediverse includes platforms such as Mastodon for microblogging, Pixelfed for sharing photos, and PeerTube for sharing videos. Unlike Big Tech, the fediverse is mostly based on free and open-source software. Meta plans to implement ActivityPub compatibility for Threads so users can communicate with the fediverse.
History
The term "fediverse" was first used to describe the network formed by software using the OStatus protocol, such as GNU Social, Mastodon, and Friendica.In January 2018, the W3C presented the ActivityPub protocol, aiming to improve the interoperability between different software packages run on a wide network of servers. By 2019, a majority of software that was previously using OStatus had switched to ActivityPub, and the term "fediverse" came to refer to the ActivityPub-based federated network.
Design
While a traditional social networking site will host all its...