Takeaways

• The fediverse is a global social network of interconnected servers that allows people to communicate across different platforms.
• Threads is Meta’s first app built to be compatible with the fediverse to help people join public conversations and find their community, no matter what server they use.
• Our vision is that people using other fediverse-compatible servers will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads profile, and vice versa, connecting communities.

What is the fediverse?

The fediverse is a global, open network of interconnected, but still independent social media servers, each with its own users, content and rules. Servers share information with each other to enable people to connect and discover new things across the fediverse. So what does that mean? The fediverse allows you to communicate across different servers – imagine posting on Threads and having people see your post on Tumblr or Flipboard.

A helpful analogy is e-mail. If you use Yahoo and your friend uses Gmail, you’re able to send emails to each other because both providers conform to the same protocol. Unlike email, your fediverse conversations and profile are public and can be shared across servers.

Right now, most social networks don’t work that way. People on Reddit can’t follow people on Pinterest, for example.

The fediverse changes that, enabling people to follow one another and communicate across different servers.

What is Meta’s role in the fediverse?

Meta doesn’t own the fediverse. Threads is just one of many servers that has joined it. Threads is Meta’s first app built to be compatible with the fediverse by integrating it with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol. Threads will be one of the social networks on the fediverse where content can flow between Threads and other servers.

People 18 and over with public Threads profiles in 100+ countries can turn on sharing to the fediverse. If you turn on sharing to the fediverse, people on other fediverse servers will be able to search for and follow your Threads profile, see and interact with your content, and share your content with anyone on or off their server.

Sharing to the fediverse impacts your privacy and control over your information. To learn more, visit our Help Center, Fediverse Guide in our Privacy Center, and Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy.

We hope that by joining this fast-growing ecosystem of interoperable servers, Threads will help people find their community, no matter which server they use.

What are the benefits of open social networking?

Open social networking makes content more easily accessible across servers. For example, if you turn on sharing to the fediverse, this means your Threads profile and posts will be accessible from other servers as well, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort. 

With open social networking, people using fediverse-compatible servers will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads profile, and vice versa, connecting communities.

Developers can build new types of features and user experiences that can easily plug into other open social networks, accelerating the pace of innovation and experimentation. This will give people more choice when it comes to reaching new audiences, expanding their communities, and joining public discussions on topics they care about.

(Source: Meta)