Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon, praises the entry of Threads into the decentralized social media landscape, predicting that this development will enhance Mastodon’s appeal as an open-source alternative to Twitter. Mastodon, utilizing the decentralized social networking protocol ActivityPub, has garnered increased attention following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and its subsequent transformation into X, aiming to encompass various functionalities such as creators, payments, video, live audio, and shopping.
In response to discontent with Twitter’s changes, users have explored alternative platforms like Mastodon and others such as Spill, Spoutible, Post, Bluesky, and more. However, the landscape shifted with Instagram’s foray into the “Twitter clone” space, backed by Meta’s substantial resources, achieving nearly 100 million monthly active users within three months. In comparison, Mastodon currently has 1.5 million monthly active users.
Crucially for Mastodon, Meta has committed to integrating Threads with ActivityPub, allowing users to discover and follow both Mastodon and Threads users across both services. Although integration was expected in early 2024, Meta surprised everyone by announcing testing for ActivityPub integration.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of interoperability, giving users more choices in how they interact and extending content reach. While the specifics of integration were not explained by Zuckerberg, Rochko clarified that federation, connecting Threads to a broader network of servers running decentralized social apps, was initially one-way. This means Mastodon users can follow selected Threads user profiles, but the reverse is not yet possible.
Rochko expressed optimism about Meta embracing ActivityPub and decentralized social media, viewing it as a positive step for those seeking alternatives to large platforms. He downplayed concerns of a potential “embrace-extend-extinguish” situation, emphasizing that even if Threads abandoned ActivityPub, the decentralized social media movement would persist.
As integration takes effect, Rochko sees it as an exciting and significant step for Mastodon, advancing towards the interoperable social web. He highlights the added attractiveness of Mastodon with access to all Threads users, a sentiment echoed by the Mastodon third-party client, Mammoth, backed by Mozilla. Mammoth aims to provide a competitive user interface, particularly for newcomers to decentralized social media, presenting a viable alternative to Threads. With Threads’ integration into Mastodon’s ecosystem, users gain more choices in engaging with Threads content through their preferred apps.
