Oddbean new post about | logout
 Mark Zuckerberg on Threads and ActivityPub
https://fediversereport.com/zuckerberg-on-threads-and-activitypub/

...

He is talking about interoperability again here as the distinguishing factor for the difference between phase one of social networks and the next phase. He then draws parallels to the messaging ecosystem. Meta is working on providing full interoperability for WhatsApp. Something that is conveniently not mentioned is that this interoperability for messaging apps is a requirement of Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which will come into force in spring 2024.

The implication here from Mark Zuckerberg’s perspective seems that interoperability of social networks is here to stay, due to external forces, and Meta will have to adopt.

Another note here is that Mark Zuckerberg says, when talking about decentralised social media protocols, that he has “always believed in this stuff.” Pressed by Alex Heath, he points at the technical complications of implementing a decentralised protocol into Facebook. What is not mentioned is that he also holds the majority of voting power at Meta, and that under his leadership, Facebook has actively removed functionality that enabled interoperability. For example, fediverse platform Friendica used to have a Facebook/Friendica plugin that allowed full interoperability between both platforms, until Facebook made major changes to their API that depreciated this feature.