If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But, if it breaks after Elon Musk buys it, then maybe you should take another look.
Social networking giant Meta told Platformer this week it is “exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates,” the outlet reported.
“We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” Meta added. This was first reported on Thursday by the outlet MoneyControl.
Daniel Ives, a tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Entrepreneur that it looks like a good decision on Meta’s part.
“This is a smart move by Meta to head down this path and potentially disrupt the social media landscape with Twitter and Mastodon,” Ives said. “There could be monetization opportunities ahead of this front.”
Since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter was finalized in October, the company laid off legions of staff and experienced six major outages so far this year, per The Guardian, including this week when hyperlinks and images were not working on the site.
In the wake of the acquisition, social networks like Mastodon, which is a social network that functions on a decentralized “federation” of servers, saw new interest.
Related: What Is ‘Decentralized Social Network’ Mastodon and Why Is Elon Musk Already Raging About It
Last April, following Musk’s approved bid for the social network giant, human rights groups expressed concerns about the potential of rising hate speech, per Reuters. Last month, a survey published by Amnesty International USA, GLAAD, and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) found that 60% of the LGBTQ Twitter users surveyed said they have “encountered” an increased hate speech since Musk bought the platform. Several white supremacists and accounts riddled with hate speech have been reinstated to the platform.
It seems like Meta sees an opportunity.
According to MoneyControl, the project has been codenamed P92. Like Mastodon, it would be decentralized, but it would be branded as an Instagram product, people familiar with the idea-in-progress told the outlet.
Sources told platformer that Adam Mosseri, who is in charge of Instagram, is leading this project. Meta did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Gabrielle Bienasz
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