The Diversification Of The Social Media and Microblogging Environment

When Elon Musk bought Twitter he signed the start of the Social Media giant’s implosion. A decade earlier Murdoch had done the same thing to MySpace. In the end he sold MySpace for a fraction of what he had bought it for.

We could cry, and bemoan the loss of Twitter but we could also look around, and see what has happened. For years I said that I wanted to leave Twitter, but no one else did, because despite all of its flaws, it had critical mass. It had the right diversity of people to be a required social network, for anyone using social media.

Making Social Media Migration Attractive

With the purchase of Twitter by Musk, and the swing by Twitter to the Far Right, it created a legitimate reason for tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands to jump the shark, to join other websites, whether Mastodon, Calckey, Facebook, Instagram and more. It encouraged people to simultaneously look for alternative solutions. It weakened the Twitter brand, but strengthened the use case for similar websites and products.

When Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp we were almost stuck. It provided a reason for people to use Signal, Telegram and Wire, among other apps. When a social media giant buys a website, it encourages people to flee to an open source solution that is free, or at least likely to be taken over by corporate interests.

Migrate to the Fediverse

It’s easy to keep looking at Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and the giants, but I think it’s more interesting to look at the Fediverse, because the Fediverse is broadening and expanding its use-case. Twitter is not the first social network to be bought, and destroyed by the Right. It’s the most recent.

This time, though, it feels different, because open source solutions are ready to provide people with an open source, community driven alternative that offers instagram like functionality with Pixelfed, and forum and microblogging with Mastodon, Misskey and spin offs on one side, and BlueSky and its own federation project on the other.

Your Own Instance

For the cost of Twitter Blue we can set up our own Mastodon instance. For a small monthly contribution we can fund an independent server like calckey, which is part of the fediverse, but built on Misskey, rather than Mastodon.

Recently I have been frustrated by something specific. Twitter, Facebook and other sites all had scaling issues, which they fixed and ironed out. Now Misskey and Mastodon are growing, and they need to fix those same issues in turn. We’re back to a time where, if we’re using Calckey or other instances they slow down and give error messages due to the server load being too high. We’re back to where we were years ago with the tech giants. It’s frustrating, although if Calckey slows down I jump on to Mastodon Social and vice versa. If one instance is overloaded we can switch to another, until things calm down.

Fluid Transfers

The beauty of the Fediverse, compared to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is that if you get tired with one community you can export several CSV files from one instance and pull them into the next. You don’t have to use one server, if the community is not for you. Within a few minutes you can transfer hundreds, if not thousands, of the people you’re following. The instance doesn’t care where you’re following from. It’s only when you get answers or interactions that it matters.

Towards a Decline of the Centralised Social Network

The Far Right, by controlling Facebook, Instagram, Meta and Twitter has encouraged people to drop their platforms, in favour of Fediverse and BlueSky compatible social networks. They have shown, for the last time, that centralised ownership of a social network is bad, and that now is the time to move back towards the social web. Now is the time to go back to community driven, open source solutions. Tech giants, and their shareholders have devalued themselves. Rationally no social network should ever sell itself for billions, for two reasons. The first is that they’re breaking the implied contract they have with their user base. The second is that users can migrate within a matter of weeks, days, or even hours.

When Twitter agreed to be sold to an individual it destroyed the Twitter community’s trust in the board of directors, and by juxtaposition, all social media giants. Twitter was the last giant I was still using. Now that I’m gone, it’s open source, and community funded social networks from now on.