Mark Zuckerberg Chairman and CEO of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.) | Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.)
The fediverse is a global, open network of interconnected yet independent social media servers, each with its own users, content, and rules. These servers share information to enable people to connect and discover new things across the fediverse. This allows communication across different servers—akin to posting on Threads and having it visible on Tumblr or Flipboard.
A useful analogy is email. If you use Yahoo and your friend uses Gmail, you can send emails to each other because both providers conform to the same protocol. Unlike email, fediverse conversations and profiles are public and can be shared across servers.
Currently, most social networks do not operate this way; for example, Reddit users cannot follow Pinterest users. The fediverse changes that by enabling people to follow one another and communicate across different servers.
Meta does not own the fediverse. Threads is just one of many servers that have joined it. Threads is Meta’s first app built to be compatible with the fediverse by integrating it with ActivityPub, an open social networking protocol. Threads will allow content to flow between itself and other servers in the fediverse.
People aged 18 and over with public Threads profiles in more than 100 countries can enable sharing to the fediverse. Enabling this feature allows people on other fediverse servers to search for and follow your Threads profile, see and interact with your content, and share it with anyone on or off their server.
Sharing to the fediverse impacts privacy and control over information. For more details, visit Meta's Help Center, Fediverse Guide in their Privacy Center, or Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy.
Meta hopes that by joining this growing ecosystem of interoperable servers, Threads will help individuals find their community regardless of which server they use.
Open social networking makes content more accessible across servers. For instance, if you turn on sharing to the fediverse from your Threads profile, your posts will be accessible from other servers as well without added effort.
With open social networking, people using fediverse-compatible servers can follow and interact with those on Threads without needing a Threads profile themselves—and vice versa—thus connecting communities.
Developers can create new features that easily integrate into other open social networks, accelerating innovation and experimentation. This provides users more choices for reaching new audiences, expanding communities, and engaging in public discussions on topics they care about.
