ActivityPub Supported Social Media – Instagram Threads

Looking for the ActivityPub supported social media app? If yes, you have stumbled upon the right webpage.

The centralization and control of user data by dominant platforms have raised some serious concerns for social media users about their privacy, data ownership, and freedom of expression.

ActivityPub, which was first proposed in 2015 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Social Web Working Group, appears as a solution that could fix these issues. However, ActivityPub isn’t a perfect protocol, and there are a lot of things that need to be improved.

This article covers detailed information about ActivityPub supported social media apps, what this protocol offers, benefits, drawbacks, and more.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started –

ActivityPub Supported Social Media – Instagram Threads

Even though the ActivityPub protocol was proposed in 2015, it garnered the most media attention when Meta announced that they are working on Instagram Threads, a Twitter competitor.

Instagram Threads is scheduled to go live on Thursday, July 6. You will be able to download the Threads app after its official launch.

Threads boasts a user interface similar to Twitter. Shared screengrabs indicate that Threads would boast features that would allow users to like, repost, comment, and share posts. These posts will be called Threads.

In addition to that, ActivityPub would also boast functionalities that would allow users to have cross-platform communication.

However, Instagram Threads isn’t the only social media platform that is using ActivityPub.

Other ActivityPub Supported Social Media Apps

Instagram Threads isn’t the first ActivityPub supported social media platform. There are many other social media platforms that have already used this protocol before.

Some of those social media platforms are –

Mastodon

Mastodon is a popular social media and microblogging platform that implements ActivityPub.

It allows users to create accounts on different servers (called “instances”) and communicate with users across instances, forming a decentralized network of interconnected communities.

PeerTube

PeerTube is a decentralized video hosting platform that uses ActivityPub to facilitate federation.

It allows users to host and share videos across multiple instances, promoting a more distributed and community-driven approach to online video sharing.

Pixelfed

Pixelfed is an ActivityPub-powered image-sharing platform that focuses on privacy and ownership.

Pixelfed is a decentralized alternative to centralized image-sharing platforms such as Instagram. It allows users to share and discover photos while maintaining control over their data.

Write.as

Write.as is a minimalist blogging platform that supports ActivityPub.

It enables users to publish and share blog posts, and it incorporates federation capabilities, allowing users to follow and interact with other users across instances.

Plume

Plume is a federated blogging platform built on ActivityPub.

It enables users to create and manage their blogs while facilitating interactions and discussions with other users on the federated network.

So, these were some of the apps that were powered by ActivityPub.

Benefits of ActivityPub

There are some strong reasons why the ActivityPub protocol is garnering so much attention –

• Decentralization – ActivityPub promotes a decentralized social web, giving more control to users over their data. This means that users are not tied to a single centralized platform. ActivityPub also allows users to choose from a variety of platforms while still being able to interact with users on different platforms.
• Interoperability – ActivityPub enables different social networking platforms to communicate and interoperate with each other. This means users can follow, interact, and share content across platforms, fostering a more connected and diverse social experience.
• Data Ownership and Privacy – ActivityPub emphasizes user ownership and control over their data. This protocol allows users to choose the platform that aligns with their privacy preferences. It further gives the option to self-host their data if desired. It reduces the reliance on centralized platforms that collect and monetize user data.
• Community-driven Development – ActivityPub is an open and community-driven standard. It encourages collaboration and innovation among developers, allowing for the creation of new and unique social networking platforms. It also enables users to contribute to the development and improvement of the protocol.

Drawback of ActivityPub

ActivityPub protocol isn’t very much robust and yet boasts some limitations. Some of the limitations of ActivityPub are mentioned below –

• Lack of Centralized Moderation – Due to the decentralized nature of ActivityPub, moderation can be more challenging. Each platform is responsible for its own moderation policies, which may lead to inconsistencies or difficulties in enforcing community guidelines across the entire network.
• Scalability and Performance – As the number of users and activities on the platform increases, scalability and performance could become an issue. This could present a challenge to platforms relying on ActivityPub to handle the growing volume of data and maintain a smooth user experience.
• Fragmentation and Fragmented User Base – With ActivityPub, the social web becomes fragmented as users and communities choose different platforms. This can result in a dispersed user base, potentially leading to limited engagement or difficulty in building large, cohesive communities.