Mark Zuckerberg seems to think he can build a better version of Twitter. In a statement to Moneycontrol, a spokesperson with Meta, Facebook’s parent company, revealed that it is currently developing a decentralized social network for sharing text updates, and while the blue bird headed by Elon Musk wasn’t directly named, the project, codenamed P92, sounds an awful like Twitter, as pointed out by CNN, which received a separate but similar statement that offers insight as to why Meta is pursuing this. Adam Mosseri, who heads Instagram, is reportedly leading the project.
From a Moneycontrol report:
Meta, the parent firm of Facebook and Instagram, is hashing out a plan to build a standalone text-based content app that will support ActivityPub, the decentralised social networking protocol powering Twitter rival Mastodon and other federated apps, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol.
The app will be Instagram-branded and will allow users to register/login to the app through their Instagram credentials, they said. Moneycontrol has seen a copy of an internal product brief that elaborates on the functioning and various product features of the app.
“We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests” a Meta spokesperson said.
From a CNN report:
“We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to CNN, which essentially described Twitter’s mission statement without naming the platform.
The platform […] would be decentralized, meaning users could ostensibly create different servers or communities, each with their own rules rather than one central platform controlled by Meta. The concept is similar to Reddit or Discord, but a departure from how Meta’s other platforms function.