The fediverse, an abbreviation of “federation universe,” refers to a set of decentralized and interconnected social media platforms, where multiple servers and communities operate independently but communicate with each other.
The well-known social network, Threads, along with other not so well known such as Mastodon, Peertube, Pixelfed or Pleroma are part of this universe.
How the fediverse works
The main feature of the fediverse is interoperability. This means that users of different platforms within the fediverse can follow each other, interact, and share content, regardless of which server they are registered on. Some of the best-known platforms that are part of the fediverse include Mastodon, PeerTube (similar to YouTube), and Pleroma (another alternative to Twitter).
To better visualize and understand how the fediverse works, one can think of how email functions, where a user with a Gmail account can send an email to an Outlook user. Just as email services rely on interoperable protocols, like IMAP, POP, and SMTP, the fediverse network is driven by the ActivityPub protocol.
ActivityPub is an open, decentralized social networking protocol that allows different social media platforms to communicate with each other. It is a part of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard, designed to enable interoperability among social networking services. This means that a user in Mastodon can follow, like, comment, and share content from a user on PeerTube, even though these platforms are independently operated.
ActivityPub defines both client-to-server and server-to-server interactions. The client-to-server API allows users to interact with their home server, while the server-to-server API handles interactions between different servers. Having a decentralized network enhances user privacy, data ownership, and resilience against censorship or service outages.
What social media platforms are part of the fediverse
Threads
From Threads, they bet very early on its integration in the fediverse to fulfill their vision “we want Threads to allow you to communicate with people from other servers that we don’t control or that don’t belong to us. This means that people using other servers in the fediverse can follow your Threads profile and you can also follow them from Threads“. Their beta experience is only available for some Threads profile in certain areas.
In the case of this social network, when you see content from other people who publish in the fediverse, in their user name you will be able to read something like “someone@fediverseserver.com”. That is to say, the name of the fediverse server where they publish will be added to their user name. You should also take into account that as they are decentralized servers, if you make changes in the posts of threads or delete them, it is possible that they will not be changed in the rest of the servers.
Mastodon
Mastodon was founded by Eugen Rochko in October 2016. The platform allows users to create and share posts, follow other users, and interact across different servers, all while maintaining control over their data and privacy. Each server, or “instance,” is independently operated, but they can communicate with each other, allowing for a diverse and interconnected user experience.
It is designed to provide a user-friendly alternative to traditional social networks like X, with a focus on privacy and community control. This social network does not have a central server, so users can choose from a list of servers to connect to, currently the platform has 9,200 servers.
Pixelfed
It probably reminds you of how Instagram works. Pixelfed was founded by software developer Daniel Supernault. The platform’s initial release was in July 2018. It allows users to upload, share, and interact with photos, while maintaining control over their data.
There are more than 266 thousand people who joined this platform and there are more than 1,2 thousand servers. Now you are allowed to become one of their app beta testers.
Source: Pixelfed
Peertube
PeerTube is an open-source, decentralized video hosting platform designed to offer an alternative to centralized video platforms like YouTube. It allows users to upload, share, and view videos while maintaining control over their content and data.
PeerTube was developed by the French non-profit organization Framasoft. The initial release of PeerTube was in October 2017. The platform uses peer-to-peer technology to distribute video content, reducing the reliance on a single server and enhancing the network’s resilience and scalability. Each PeerTube instance can operate independently, yet they can interconnect to form a larger network, providing a federated video-sharing experience.
Here you can find funny videos, independent films, short films, educational videos, music, activism videos, etc.
Pleroma
Pleroma was founded by a developer known as Lain, with significant contributions from the Pleroma community. The platform was first released in 2017. Pleroma is designed to be resource-efficient, making it suitable for smaller servers with limited computational power. Like other fediverse platforms, Pleroma instances can operate independently while still communicating with each other, fostering a diverse and interconnected user experience.
It is also compatible with other fediverse apps such as Mastodon or Pixelfed. They have public and private instances (servers).
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