The Fediverse and the decentralisation of the Internet

The dream of decentralising the Internet

The dream of a decentralised internet - meaning one not controlled or governed by any entity or entities subject to commercial interests or social engineering - is very old, but it's become fashionable once more since Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk. Things like the birdie social media platform's intention to charge a fee for using it seem to have caused tweeps to flock to other platforms (more than 280 million in December 2022) that are either more aligned with their views or less restricted. Some of them seem to have noticed the fediverse, which had been in a sort of hibernation for some time, and specifically one of the most popular networks that make it up, Mastodon.

The fediverse - which is new and yet old at the same time, like so many things in the WWW world - is essentially a form of open federation of interconnected servers for publishing content on the web, although the name is now popularly used to refer to decentralised social networks of all types (microblogging, image sharing, video streaming...).

What does the decentralisation of the Internet offer users?

This decentralised and federated operation, based on different protocols and in the form of multiple independent and interconnected instances, allows users in each one to share information with one another freely, regardless of the platforms in question. And, most importantly, as if they were on a single social network, but with each federated entity able to dictate its own social rules; in other words, with no policies, oversight, surveillance or censorship dictated by any kind of authority or supradigital big brother. There are different technologies and protocols to make these types of federations a reality, and their interconnection and interoperability are theoretically unlimited. One of the best-known is ActivityPub (used by Mastodon, one of the most popular free software platforms for decentralised microblogging), which has been recommended by W3C since 2018.

We mentioned that the decentralisation of the Internet (meaning beyond the control of government, institutional or corporate interests) as a dream has been pursued for a long time, and it is true that some of this is evident in the success of technologies such as blockchain. But it's also true that this is still one of those dreams that's always falling just short of reality, whether because of centralising-technological tensions or by the concentration of decision-making groups or, at the other end of the spectrum, due to the heterogeneity and divergence between different projects that hamper, or directly impede, its general implementation. So there are those who think that the fediverse is no more than some kind of tangled mess with little ability to attract mass communication flows and that only serves to imitate the behaviour of the mainstream social media platforms it seeks to distance itself from, in addition to being vulnerable to the proliferation of illicit content by virtue of having no centralised control.

The evolution of decentralisation

In this regard, it seems clear that this type of platform can - and must - evolve now that they have become popular again (Mastodon has already been around for six years), probably by strengthening their micro-regulation models, and above all by reducing their learning curve, an aspect that still loses out in the face of protecting users' identities and freedom of expression. But beyond the disadvantages, it is very easy to appreciate the possibilities of the networks of the fediverse, which are open and therefore theoretically unlimited in terms of expansion, possibilities and diversity.

First, these platforms have an undeniable potential to build diverse communities of knowledge and socialisation (a potential that will grow as long as they don't deviate from their foundations), thanks to the sovereignty in how they use data and personal information, and in how users disseminate their opinions and to whom.

Second, these types of platform (such as the aforementioned Mastodon, but others too, with networks such as Pleroma, Pixelfed, Lemmy, Zap, Hubzilla and more) turn their diversity into a virtue in the shape of their interoperability, thanks to open protocols such as the already mentioned ActivityPub, Diaspora and OSTatus. Each has its own topic, characteristics, user communities and interests, but they are all linked. An ecosystem, by the way, that a private network like Tumblr hopes to join and that, in theory, could host any other platform. Time will tell if all this leads us, at last, to a democratisation of communication and social networking online.