A river uprooted, gain of fishermen. And Twitter ousted, Zuckerberg’s profit. That is what the CEO of Meta must think, whose company has confirmed that he works on a new social network similar to the one commanded by Elon Musk.
This is revealed in an exclusive Moneycontrol, which details the plans for the development of a social network known internally at Meta as P92.
“We are exploring an independent decentralized social network to share text updates,” Meta explains to the aforementioned medium. “We think there is an opportunity to create a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”
Twitter decentralized, and puts Instagram in the equation
Decentralized social networks have been heralded as the great alternative to Twitter, now that its direction seems more erratic than ever. It is, in fact, one of the visions shared by Jack Dorsey —former CEO and founder— and Elon Musk about the future of these platforms. Mastodon or Bluesky are on it.
Meta’s proposal wants to embrace this concept, but with the undoubted capacity it has to take it to the mainstream. She’s planning a big deal, using Instagram as a way to sign up for the new social network, taking advantage of its huge user base. This would also allow data such as profile photo, followers and biographical information to be imported in one go, for example, making switching between accounts much easier.
For now, not many details have been released about all the tools and options that this kind of Twitter will include. The primary intent is to make a “minimum viable product” and continue to scale from there. Instagram Notes, a function that arrived a few weeks ago, were a first approach to this idea.
Launching a decentralized social network is something new for Meta, and it can help in its efforts to be more friendly to the public. After years plagued by scandals over the use of data and its focus on squeezing the user to the maximum, this twist could be welcome.
With a decentralized social network, Meta could let different people and communities operate under different frameworks, instead of having to abide strictly and uniquely by Meta’s rules. Still, everything is to be decided.
It is still unknown when this new social network will arrive, which Zuckerberg and company have been mulling over since Musk took power. It is known, however, that it will be led by Adam Mosseri, current head of Instagram.
