This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

cross-posted from: https://links.hackliberty.org/post/2559706

Abstract

This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Some challenges mentioned in the paper:

  • Discoverability as there is no central or unified index
  • Complicated moderation efforts due to its decentralized nature
  • Interoperability between instances of different types (e.g., Lemmy and Funkwhale)
  • Concentration on a small number of large instances
  • The risk of commercial capture by Big Tech

What are your thoughts on this? And how could we make the Fediverse a better place for all to stay?

  • boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net
    3·
    4 months ago

    Very true. Discoverability is a huge no-go

    I find Lemmy and Mastodonunusable without an App, because of all the “lets redirect to your main instance” stuff.

    Also, I find Mastodon pretty strange, have like 15 retoots and likes in total after using it since a long time, using hashtags (which I miss in Lemmy) and following many people.

    I just cant get Twitter so Mastodon is equally bad. Lemmy makes more sense to me.

    And I dont really get how decentralization takes off load off servers, as in the end every server should at least proxy all content of the entire Fedi. Otherwise you get sync issues and servers are not shown, and you need to force your app to force the instance to federate (I guess) by using ! Links