Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is working on a decentralized text-based app that will serve as a decentralized Twitter competitor
Money Control first reported that a spokesperson of the company said that they are exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. They believe that there is an opportunity for creating such social media where creators or public figures could share timely updates about their interests.
P92: Decentralized Twitter Competitor
Meta has not released any further information regarding its attempt of copying Twitter although Money Control reports that it will be Instagram-branded and users will be able to register and log in by connecting their Instagram accounts.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri, who also leads the project they named "P92," told Platformer that it is still unclear when the new app will be released. At this stage, they are still exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. They believe that there is an opportunity for a Twitter-like platform where people could share their insights.
As Money Control reports, this new decentralized app is still under development. The company is already involving the legal department to smooth out privacy concerns before it could go public.
This recent move by Meta is seen as an attempt to build a Twitter alternative or a competitor for Mastodon, which became popular after Elon Musk took over Twitter. The decentralized network is under Fediverse which supports the ActivityPub protocol. Meta said that their new app will also be supporting ActivityPubl to make it easier to connect to other social media networks.
Why Some Think This Is a Good Thing
Tumblr, Flipboard, and Flickr are among the various tools that have adopted or planned to add ActivityPub support, TechCrunch reports. Decentralization, however, is not confined to this protocol. Bluesky, which is financed by Jack Dorsey, debuted its iOS app in a test last week. Rocket. chat, for example, has adopted the Matrix protocol.
Former Twitter programmer Blaine Cook, on the other hand, told TechCrunch last year that the availability of alternative protocols is a positive thing.
He noted that a diversity of protocol is important and that he thinks the interoperability between ActivityPub and Bluesky will not be difficult. However, the perfectionist policies of Twitter and Facebook have prevented it.
It is also important to remember that Meta has tried making new applications and experiences that have not taken off. It has killed many experiments in the past few years so it will not be too surprising if this decentralized experience also shuts down a couple of years after its launch.
Meta has previously attempted to compete with YouTube and TikTok with IGTV and Reels, which was a major push to rope in Twitter's user base.
New York-based Great Hill Capital chairman and managing member Thomas Hayes told Reuters that the history of Meta is that they are better as acquirers than innovators or developers. As far as cloning Twitter, he believes that it is just Meta's defensive move.
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