An evidence-based and critical analysis of the Fediverse decentralization promises

TL;DR

It is suggested that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Abstract

This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Representation of a federated system: clients only connect to a single server (instance), which in turn communicates with other servers.
• Figure 2: The solid red (dashed blue) line depicts the cumulative fraction of monthly active users (unique visitors) on the top fediverse instances (social media domains).