Meta is building its own Twitter-like platform
A while ago, we did a story on Mastodon, a popular decentralized platform that people are leaving for after Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter.
A few minutes every morning is all you need.
Stay up to date on the world's Headlines and Human Stories. It's fun, it's factual, it's fluff-free.
A while ago, we did a story on Mastodon, a popular decentralized platform that people are leaving for after Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. But it looks like Twitter could have an even bigger rival on the scene in a few months. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly developing a Twitter alternative.
"We're exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there's an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests," a Meta spokesperson said.
New reports say that this social network, codenamed P92, will be "Instagram-branded," and will use Instagram tech. This means that the app could become a new branch of Instagram for text-based posts, and users would log in using their Instagram accounts. Following Instagram's new "Notes" feature rolling out, this news doesn't come as a total surprise.
After Meta confirmed this development, Elon Musk reacted to the news, responding to Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus' tweet that mentioned it, just saying, "Copy 🐈."
P92 uses ActivityPub as social networking protocol to stay decentralized. This means that users set up their own servers with their own content moderation rules. Posts will be available across servers, but it's not clear whether or not users will be able to follow one another without being active on the mutual servers.
Other features that Meta wants to be available on P92 are usable links for posts with previews, shareable media and verification badges. All of these things are currently available on Twitter. But Twitter has been running into so much trouble lately (mass layoffs, controversial Elon Musk decisions, strange glitches and tech issues).
But, last year, former Twitter engineer Blaine Cook said, "I think the diversity of protocol is important, as is the diversity of the applications built on top of the protocols. That said, I strongly believe that interoperability between ActivityPub and Bluesky won't be difficult. The only thing preventing, for example, interoperability between Twitter and Facebook's timeline has been protectionist policies by those companies."
Comments ()