After the revelations of two American media, the web giant Meta confirmed this Friday, March 10, that it is beginning to develop a social network similar to Twitter, but decentralized. A project that would be inspired by both the latter and Instagram… to the point of using your data to make it work.
Twitter is not dead yet, Meta is already preparing its competitor. Friday March 10, online media money control et platforms revealed that the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has begun the development of a third social network, decentralized and based on the exchange of short messages. Code name: P92. A project confirmed a few hours later by the American multinational.
This platform seems to want to take advantage of the flight of hundreds of thousands of Twitter users since October 2022, after the takeover of the social network by billionaire Elon Musk. ” We believe that there is an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can update on their interests at the appropriate time.“, says a Meta spokesperson to the two media.
Twitter features in the body of Instagram
P92 is said to be in the early stages of its development, but it’s not yet clear if the creation of the app has really started, it warns money control. The online medium was able to access a summary of the product intended for internal use. Among the features mentioned for P92, we find the sharing of images, videos, and clickable links that preview your content.
Users should also be able to comment on posts and send private messages, though these options may not be part of the first version of the app. On the other hand, Meta is still not sure about allowing ” retweeter» posts like on the blue bird platform.
Verification badges would be well planned, but as the medium specifies EngadgetThey may not be free: In February, Meta followed Twitter’s announcement of paid badges by announcing its own subscription for $12 a month to get verified on Facebook or Instagram.
Your Instagram data could be feeding the beast
Another detail of P92: the application of the social network would adopt the style of Instagram. You can also use your Instagram account to connect. Choosing this option would add your profile information to that of P92.
On the other hand, if the filling in of your account data was later “minimum, if any“saysmoney controlthe project team still wants to use “the data of all Instagram users, regardless of their participation in P92 and as freely as possible for the purposes of analysis, product improvement and classification».
The same decentralized system as Mastodon
The real difference from other Meta services is in the technology used to run P92. Like Mastodon, another social network that competes with Twitter, this new platform would be decentralized. Specifically, users will be able to host part of this social network on their own server and establish their own moderation rules there.
This platform would also integrate the ActivityPub protocol used by Mastodon. Like the latter, P92 would also allow users to view the content of members of other servers so as not to lose the agora effect of Twitter. But according tomoney controlIt is not yet known if they will be able to follow accounts hosted on a different server than theirs.
Decentralized to govern better
Finally, Meta seems unwilling to take too many risks for its competitor on Twitter. Only the choice of a decentralized model strays a bit from the bluebird recipe, but even this point seems more practical than risky for Meta.
First, the multinational avoids facing the same criticisms raised after Musk’s takeover of Twitter over the arbitrary control of a single actor over a tool that has become an integral part of the Western democratic debate. Similarly, the decentralized model prevents Meta from having to assume responsibility for content moderation, an aspect for which the company is heavily criticized on its other social networks.
Meta will therefore try to take its place among the many contenders for the title of the next Twitter, but the multinational will be able to rely on the 1.2 billion Instagram users to popularize the P92. A stage that Mastodon and the other applicants never reached.
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