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decentralized social media app

Dissatisfied with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg is trying to add a third bow to his.

The tech giant Meta is already operating a portfolio of several of the world’s most well-known social media platforms, and is currently working on a new decentralized social media app under an alias “P92”.

Although the plans are not clear at the moment, the project appears more in the concept phase than the completion stage – reports indicate that users will be required to log in to the new platform using their Instagram login credentials.

Since the decentralized social-media platforms such as Mastodon operating and Facebook’s user base declined to the lowest level in the history of the company in the last year, and industry-leading platforms such as Twitter struggling under chaotic management, it’s like there’s never been a more appropriate time to move similar to this.

Also, Read: The US Government Threatens to Ban TikTok If It Won’t Be Sold

Meta’s New Platform: What We Know

The announcement that Meta has begun the development of a new project codenamed P92 – was first announced by the financial news website MoneyControl earlier this week.

“We’re looking at a separate decentralized social network that allows users to share messages in text. We think there’s a chance to create a separate platform that public figures and creators are able to share updates on their activities” an official spokesperson informed The publication.

The project is led by Instagram the company’s chief Adam Mosseri and will require your login credentials to Instagram when you sign up.

A person familiar with the project also informed MoneyControl that “the plan as of now is that the MVP (minimum viable product) will definitely allow our users to broadcast posts to people on other servers” However, the project also stated that the company is still trying to decide whether or not to permit the users “to follow and view the content of people on other servers.”

ActivityPub: the Future of Social Media?

Meta’s newest app is set to make use of ActivityPub which is a decentralized social network protocol that powers Mastodon.

The platform that was once small-scale became flooded with new sign-ups in the wake of the turbulent deal to acquire Twitter which is home to 1.8 million registered users.

Other websites that are exploring ways to use ActivityPub Protocol include ActivityPub Protocol include Flicker, Tumblr, and Flipboard.

It’s not the only one being used to achieve the goal of decentralization, however. For instance, the Matrix protocols, as an example are being used in Twitter creator Jack Dorsey’s latest application BlueSky as well as the open-source communication platform Rocket.chat.

Meta: Twitter’s Newest Competitor?

The turbulence on Twitter is likely to not end anytime soon, Meta may see this as an opportunity to profit from the need for a brand emerging Social media platform that has similar features.

It’s unlikely to be a good idea to build the app into current Meta platforms such as Instagram as well as Facebook in their entirety therefore a completely new text-based content application would seem like a reasonable move.

With alternative Twitter services such as Mastodon still in the early stages and Facebook seeing a decline in its user base at the beginning of its nearly 20 years of existence and the fact that it’s a “secret” project has suddenly come to light at this point could be a prelude to a planned announcement.

Whatever the method used to get it to press, we can be able to look back on this story to be one of the very first indicators of tangible paradigm shifts in the direction of traditional social media applications and toward the decentralization of digital platforms for social media.

 

 

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