Tangled Threads in the Fediverse

March 24, 2024

Carlos Valdez

Full-stack Developer

On March 21, Engineering at Meta announced that Threads has entered the Fediverse. This is a beta that they're launching so that content on Threads can be seen anywhere in the Fediverse. Well... kind of.

The (apparently?) first thread in the Fediverse was made by Zuckerberg with this post. I was personally excited about this -- this would be the first mainstream use of the Fediverse, which I hope will bring more attention to it. In my mind, this would give everyone the ability to choose which social network while still being able to stay in contact with people in other social networks.

Social networks seem to have been doing this for a while now, since we've been hearing that Tumblr would be integrating ActivityPub. Then again, that post was from 2022, and it still doesn't have it.

Tumblr isn't the only one considering ActivityPub implementation either. It seems like GitLab is also attempting to implement ActivityPub.

This is all very exciting to me.

The Fediverse is a term people use to describe apps that use the ActivityPub protocol. ActivityPub is a protocol that allows communication between different social networks.

So, consider my Threads account, @calejvaldez@threads.net. If I post there and decide to send that post to the Fediverse, (that is, allow Threads to share it via ActivityPub) it can be shown to other social networks that use ActivityPub.

So, if I post to my Threads account, someone on Mastodon can see that post too! You can also see Threads accounts on Mastodon. For example, you can see Adam Mosseri's account thats on Threads from mastodon.design, you can do so by visiting mastodon.design/@mosseri@threads.net. Though, if you're not logged in, it'll just redirect you to Threads.

This concept to me is amazing. Assume your parents don't know and don't want to learn how to use Instagram, but you still want to stay in contact with them. If Facebook and Instagram were to implement ActivityPub, you could still stay in contact without anyone having to learn anything new. Mom would be able to see your account from facebook.com/@you@instagram.com, and you would be able to see Mom from instagram.com/@mom@facebook.com.

Two days ago, a rather popular Fediverse account, FediTips, made a post urging people to defederate Threads.

Defederation, or to "defederate" a server, is when a server (or, to make things easier, a social network) decides to block another server.

If Threads decides a social network is causing too much problems, they can choose to defederate it, meaning they block that social network from Threads. Threads users would no longer be able to access that website from Threads.

FediTips brings up articles about Meta stating that they don't moderate their platform effectively, and it may cause issues within the Fediverse. I admit, I do agree with them.

In 2023, I saw a post online that went to an ANTI-META FEDI PACT, which showcased the admins that plan to defederate Threads. It only really caught my attention because the admin for the instance I was in, Timothée Goguely, had signed this fact. He later reversed course, asked the people in the server, and decided to "wait and see."

Still, it's crazy to see how many people want to defederate Meta, but at the same time, I get their point. Meta has an awful track record of privacy and data collection. They already collect as much information as they can from people in their social networks, so I can only imagine how much information they're going to get from people on other social networks. People on the Fediverse have also been concerned about how Meta might try to push ads in the Fediverse.

So, now Threads is officially in the Fediverse, though as a beta.

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, spoke a bit on the beta.

Threads Update 🔔🧵

We’re rolling out a beta of our fediverse integration in a few countries, including the US. Starting today, people who are 18 or older with a public profile can opt into a test that lets you share to the fediverse. You won’t be able to see replies or follows from the fediverse yet, but you’ll be able to see the total number of likes from Threads and the fediverse. To turn on sharing to the fediverse, go to your Account Settings and tap on Fediverse sharing.

Source: Threads post

When I first heard that Threads was going to be on the Fediverse, I was excited. Not only does it promote the Fediverse, it also gives us a much prettier entry to the Fediverse. As much as I like Mastodon and would trust any Mastodon-based server instead of Meta, Threads' interface is much prettier and user friendly than Mastodon seems. And my friends are on Threads! Or... at least they were on that first day.

So... at this point, we'll just have to see. I don't really plan on using Threads myself. It's beautiful, I'll admit, but the content there seems to be... not fun. I'm still on Twitter, albeit a private account, because the content there is stuff I actually care about. Communities on Twitter doesn't seem to want to move anytime soon, even if people don't like Musk.