Threads testing an expansion to Mastodon and other social media platforms،
Despite the sharp drop in users after the initial surge, Mark Zuckerberg is not letting go of Threads. Now, the Meta mastermind announces that something new is in testing: something that will give users interoperability (via Reuters).
Here's what Zuckerberg says:
Starting a test where posts from Threads accounts will be available on Mastodon and other services that use the ActivityPub protocol. Making Threads interoperable will give people more choices in how they interact and help content reach more people. I'm pretty optimistic about that.
Plans for Threads to be compatible with Mastodon or other services using the ActivityPub protocol are not new, in fact, they were shared with the public as soon as the Twitter clone saw the light of day in mid-2023.
“We are working to make Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the Internet,” Meta said in July.
They are now moving in this direction with current interoperability testing, but no further details are being shared.
What is the juggernaut?
Mastodon is a free, ad-free, open-source, self-hosted social network that takes privacy and personalization to heart. “Instant global communication is too important to be owned by one company. Each Mastodon server is a completely independent entity, capable of interacting with others to form a global social network,” the Mastodon homepage states.
In July, when Threads launched, Mastodon CEO and founder Eugen Rochko wrote a lengthy article blog post on the subject.
Here's an excerpt from the article that looks like a Q&A:
Will a large platform like Meta joining Mastodon overwhelm smaller servers?Mastodon operates primarily through follow-up relationships. When you follow a user on another server for the first time, your server subscribes specifically to that user. This means that even if there is a server with millions of people on the network, unless you are following millions of people, you will not receive updates for millions of people. This helps manage traffic and storage on the network. Thus, small servers will not be affected, and may not even notice the presence of Threads, except when they decide to follow specific users.
