Political posturing threatens Big Tech’s dominance
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The Fediverse connects users across apps, without turning them into a product
As the world’s biggest social media sites bow to political pressure, is it finally the Fediverse’s time to shine?
The year is 2005. You use Facebook to organise your social life. It’s a key tool in spotting who is single.
It’s 2010. You’re Liking things left, right and centre. A few local businesses have created their own pages, and you drop them a cheeky follow. Your parents are on Facebook.
It’s 2015. Advertisers have claimed your news feed. You have no idea who is in a relationship. Your friends have moved to Instagram (also a Facebook product). You only use Facebook to contact your gran.
It’s 2022. Your profile lies dusty and abandoned. Your gran still Likes the two photos you post a year. Facebook Meta swears VR is the Next Big Thing, then lays off 11,000 people.
It’s 2025. Mark Zuckerberg, trying to ingratiate himself with the USA’s political headwinds, scraps fact checkers to chase engagement (remember, it doesn’t matter if you react with an angry face or a thumbs up as long as you react). Finally sick of the whole debacle, you turn…where?
The answer might be federated social media apps, aka the Fediverse. With Big Tech’s CEOs increasingly allowing (or encouraging) politics to dictate content, users are looking for independent replacements.
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X) signalled the first mass move to the Fediverse. While still massive, X has been haemorrhaging users to federated apps Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky since 2022. Threads is owned by Meta, but the latter two have a decentralised ownership model and don’t force you to use the suggestion algorithms that push content to your feed. They even – shock, horror – eschew advertising.
In fact, most modern Fediverse apps feel like social media circa 2005, only surfacing content from people you follow by default. That’s very welcome, though it’s not always a strength; short form video is technically easy (see: Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts), but TikTok’s algorithm is what keeps people coming back.
And just having a well-designed app is no guarantee of success. Social media relies on having other people to connect with. Without a critical mass of users migrating to the Fediverse, tech billionaires will retain the power to overtly shape politics.
Want to free yourself from Facebook? Tell your friends about the Fediverse.
Recommended Reads:
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is doing some federation of its own, joining up data for use across the industry. I talked to CIO Matt Taylor to hear more about the future of flight.
Sticking with data, Penny Horwood has talked to Evri’s first chief data officer, Harvinder Atwal, about the data it collects in its ambition to be delivering a billion parcels a year by 2030.
Finally, like Evri, Shopify deals with huge seasonal demand spikes. VP of infrastructure Mattie Toia tells us all about how the company handled its peak of peaks in the latest episode of Ctrl Alt Lead.
