Mint Explainer: How Meta’s Threads could boost the rise of a new social internet

livemint.com:

Mastodon blog pointed out that the intention of Threads to become a part of the decentralized social web by using the same standard protocol as Mastodon, ActivityPub, was “noteworthy". A Meta blog confirmed the same, highlighting that “... we are working toward making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet".

The aim is to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub–the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body responsible for the web’s open standards. Other less popular protocols include OStatus, Diaspora, WebFinger, Zot (developed for use in the Hubzilla platform), and ActivityStreams. ActivityPub defines a set of rules and methods for creating, updating, and deleting content, as well as for following users, sharing media, and interacting with others across different instances.

The move to use ActivityPub would make Threads interoperable with other apps that also support the protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress, thus allowing new types of connections. Meta says its vision is to allow people using compatible apps to be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa. For instance, if you have a private profile, you’d be able to approve users on Threads who want to follow you and interact with your content, similar to your experience on Instagram.