Technology

The head of Instagram apparently says it’ll be possible to migrate accounts from Threads, retaining at least that part of the ActivityPub protocol.

Meta plans to eventually hook Threads into ActivityPub, the decentralized social media protocol that also powers Mastodon. That integration isn’t ready at launch, though, as I previously reported. When it’s enabled, Threads users will be able to interact with Mastodon users and take their accounts with them to other clients that support the ActivityPub standard. As Mosseri puts it, this is a move designed to appease creators who have grown increasingly wary of relying on the whims of centralized social media companies. “I think we might be a more compelling platform for creators, particularly for the newer creators who are more and more savvy, if we are a place where you don’t have to feel like you have to trust us forever,” he says.

If true, it seems like a positive development. This is a Mastodon (and Calckey and Misskey and everyone else, of course) account tool that I thought there was no way they’d allow.