It looks like the Federation Universe is continuing to open up. In late March, Meta’s Threads launched a beta feature that allows users from the United States, Canada or Japan to cross-post and view likes from Mastodon and other syndicated social networks. In June, it added this capability to more than 100 countries.
If you want to do this longer, you can still do it via the mobile app or web version:
Once you select Fly shareyou may see a series of explanatory screens that tell you what the Federated Universe is and how sharing works (you will need to make your profile public), and warn you that Threads has no control over your post once it is published in the Federated Universe The rules of the server it logs into in the Federal Universe. If you stop sharing, Meta can request that any previously shared posts be deleted from another server, but that’s all. [Note: these were the warnings I observed when I first went through the process in March; since they only appear the first time you enable sharing, it’s possible they may have changed since then.]
Some other things to remember:
So what does this all mean?
According to Meta, this means that “people on different servers in the Fediverse can follow your Threads profile, and eventually, you will be able to follow them from within Threads.” If you have sharing turned on and select “Fediverse Sharing,” You’ll be reminded of your username and told that you can now connect and share with others in the fediverse.
How important this is depends on how effective future cross-posting is, how smooth the process is, and what security measures are in place to prevent bad actors from using it to hack into servers that are supposed to be safe spaces, among other issues. As mentioned above, I’ve been using it since March and have found the process to work well. This could be the beginning of a more comprehensive type of social network.
Updated on September 13, 2024: Updated to include a single link to the fediverse sharing dialog and other changes.
