Dot Social

Threads Has Entered the Fediverse, with Meta’s Rachel Lambert and Peter Cottle

Apr 22, 2024

Rachel Lambert and Peter Cottle from Meta discuss Threads' entry into the fediverse, the importance of interoperability, Meta's motivations, using ActivityPub, and the future roadmap. They address community concerns, privacy controls, monetization, and excitement for progress in the Fediverse.

41:16

Creator website

Episode guests

Peter Cottle

Rachel Lambert

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Threads entered the Fediverse to enable cross-platform interactions, emphasizing user connectivity and diverse audience engagement.

Fediverse integration is foundational to Threads' development, focusing on responsible features deployment and user control over sharing expectations.

Deep dives

Reasons for Threads Entry into Fediverse

Threads entered the Fediverse to allow profile and posts interactions across different platforms like Mastodon, aligning with its goal of enabling relevant public conversations and helping users connect with diverse audiences. Threads aims to differentiate itself by providing creators with ownership over their audiences, a unique feature not widely available on other apps. This move also reflects Meta's commitment to open-source and open protocols.

Introduction

2min

Threads Integration with the Fediverse

4min

Exploring the Foundation and Future of the Threads Project

3min

Integrating Threads into the Fediverse

22min

Privacy Control and Monetization Concerns in the Fediverse

3min

Monetization and Sustainability in the Fediverse

7min

Excitement for Progress in the Fediverse

2min

On March 21, Meta’s Threads entered the fediverse. This means that people on other ActivityPub-powered platforms, like Mastodon, can follow federated Threads profiles and see, like, reply to, and repost posts from the fediverse. (Eventually, you’ll be able to follow other fediverse accounts from Threads, too.) It’s still early days, but Threads’ entry shows the ecosystem coming together at a larger scale, starting with the promise of interoperability.

Threads’ presence in the fediverse has been the elephant in the room since it was announced in July 2023. Now that it’s actually happening, there is as much skepticism as excitement. Why is Threads doing this? How is the team working with the community? How are they thinking about moderation, monetization and privacy in these early days and going forward?

In this episode of Dot Social, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue talks to two key leaders tasked with building the Threads experience: Rachel Lambert, Director of Product Management, and Peter Cottle, Software Engineer. Both are long-time Meta employees with a genuine care for open-source software and communities, as well as trust and safety. In fact, Rachel launched the Oversight Board, which helps Meta be accountable for trust and safety decisions across its social apps.

Highlights of this conversation:

• Meta’s motivations
• How foundational is the fediverse for Threads (vs. it being a “feature”)
• Deciding to use ActivityPub instead of another protocol
• Threads’ roadmap and next step
• Addressing community concerns around seriousness of investment, moderation, monetization and more
• Future of interoperability within Meta

🔎 You can follow Rachel at @rklambo@threads.net and Peter at @pcottle@threads.net

✚ You can follow Mike on Mastodon at @mike@flipboard.social and @mike@flipboard.com, and on Threads at @mmccue@threads.net

💡 To learn more about what Flipboard's doing in the fediverse, sign up here: http://about.flipboard.com/a-new-wave

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Dot Social

Threads Has Entered the Fediverse, with Meta’s Rachel Lambert and Peter Cottle

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Reasons for Threads Entry into Fediverse

Integration of Fediverse in Threads

Milestones and Future Steps in Federating Threads

Community Collaboration and Transparency on Threads Federation

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts