Most people don’t think about where their social networks actually live.
Or who controls.
Or what happens after their content is published.
They just assume a platform is a platform.
But behind the scenes, a handful of people decide how things go.
What does it look like? What is being buried. What is stored. What is being watched.
And if that doesn’t sit well with you, you’re not alone. That’s a bit too much power for a small group of people.
Here’s the good news: a different kind of social media is starting to grow in the background. One is built on openness, transparency and user control instead of central control.
In this article, we discuss decentralized social media platforms and what they mean for social media creators.
What is decentralized social media?
Decentralized social media is a term that refers to the practice of social media platforms operating on an open network involving multiple, self-managed servers, rather than a closed network of servers controlled by an organization operating the platform.
It is a way to build and manage social media platforms in such a way that…
- …increases security by preventing your data from being managed by that single platform server.
- …allows you to have full control over your data.
- … protects you from censorship as long as your content does not contain harmful or illegal activities.
- …includes community moderation.
When decentralized platforms are managed by blockchain, they are called web3 platforms.
When they are designed to interoperate with other platforms developed using the same protocol, they are called federation.
A federated network, also known as Fediverse, is a network of decentralized applications designed to work seamlessly with each other.
This means you can create content with one platform and publish it to another platform built using the same protocol, allowing you to view content from multiple platforms from a single app view.
Unfortunately, the concept of decentralized platforms is a bit complicated, so some platforms may not see as many connections as others.
Nevertheless, decentralized platforms are a welcome alternative to platforms that lock users into middle-of-the-road distributions or that have no problem profiting from civil unrest.
Popular examples of decentralized social media platforms
Bluesky
Bluesky is a microblogging platform similar to Twitter (X) and Threads, although its biggest competitor in the decentralized space is Mastodon.
It was founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey while he was still CEO of Twitter, and is currently managed by a board led by current CEO Jay Garber.
Bluesky operates a private decentralized network called the Authenticated Transfer Protocol, or AT Protocol, known simply as atproto.
In the AT Protocol, users are assigned a permanent decentralized identifier (DID) when they create their account.
They are also provided with a configurable domain name. This is the human-readable handle given to you when you set up your username in the app (ending in “bsky.social”).
This allows applications built with the AT Protocol to function as a federated network so that you can use your Bluesky account to access any other application built with it.
The goal is for all AT Protocol applications to interact with each other so that you can use content from other applications in Bluesky and vice versa. It will also be possible to transfer your data from one application to another.
Data security and privacy are at the forefront behind the concept on which Bluesky is built.
Your data is stored on Bluesky servers by default, but if you want to keep your data confidential and protect it from failures, including breaches and server outages, you can run the software on your own server (called a personal data server or PDS).
This is what separates Bluesky from centralized platforms like Twitter (X), Facebook and Instagram.
What moderation does Bluesky offer?
Bluesky has been called a free speech platform because of the way it operates, but there is some content moderation in its code.
This is actually one of its strongest features. You can choose different moderation models for your feed to control what content is shown to you. You can even import these models from third parties instead of building them yourself.
However, be aware that while Bluesky intends to be an open network that cannot control your data, its terms state that it reserves the right to remove content it deems to be in violation of these terms.
What benefits does Bluesky offer content creators?
Content stability and data security are major advantages of using Bluesky over other platforms.
By setting up your own server, you all guarantee the safety of your content from outages and widespread data breaches on Bluesky’s main servers.
Bluesky also allows users to set up custom feeds so they can control what content they see while scrolling. This means they can set up a feed that contains topics related to your account and niche to ensure they always see your content when they scroll.
As a creator, you can post text-based posts of up to 300 characters, images and videos up to 60 seconds long. You can also create themes.
Some features like polls you can create on Twitter (X) are missing, but you can create them with third-party programs built using the AT Protocol, such as poll.blue.
Finally, Bluesky is an ad-free network. While this means you’ll never be able to generate ad revenue from the platform, it does mean the app can become popular with consumers who are fed up with ads on other platforms.
If you want Schedule Bluesky posts consider using it in advance SocialBee.
It’s a social media scheduling tool that makes it easy to schedule multiple posts in advance for a variety of different platforms, including Bluesky.
It also allows you to categorize and manage your content.
Are consumers using Bluesky?
Bluesky opened its app to the public in 2024. Now he has More than 23 million users and 3.2 million daily active usersAccording to Theo.io and Similarweb.
It receives 5.4 new users every second.
After the 2024 US presidential election, with X CEO Elon Musk in attendance, Bluesky usage increased by 500% in the US and 350% in the UK.
In fact, Bluesky surpassed the Xi in app downloads on November 13, 2024, according to Appfigures. During that time, it averaged 400,000 daily downloads, while X dropped to 250,000.
According to Business of Apps, it has achieved more than 9 million downloads in the second half of 2024.
Additionally, Bluesky gained 3 million new users after X suspended its service in Brazil, and 1.2 million new users after X said it would change its blocking feature so users could still see content from accounts they had blocked.
Is Bluesky a Web3 platform?
This is up for debate.
“Web3” is a term that describes platforms that operate on a decentralized and blockchain network.
But Bluesky does is a decentralized platform, it does not run on a blockchain network.
This has led some to call Bluesky a “crypto-free web3 platform”.
It is more accurate to say that Bluesky is a decentralized platform that functions as a federated network powered by the AT Protocol.
Mastodon
Although Bluesky gained more media coverage and support thanks to its ties to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Mastodon was the original Twitter competitor, built on the idea of creating a decentralized social media application that behaved like Twitter but was not controlled by a single organization.
Mastodon is built with the ActivityPub protocol, a decentralized protocol designed specifically for social media networks.
Unlike Bluesky, Mastodon did not build its own protocol. This makes it a more open platform than Bluesky, as it uses a well-known centralized protocol rather than a proprietary version.
Any user like Bluesky can run their own Mastodon server. More than 950,000 monthly active users run more than 8,500 servers on the platform.
What benefits does Mastodon offer content creators?
As a truly decentralized platform, Mastodon does not collect your data, although it warns that the server you register with may have a different policy.
Fortunately, if you want to keep your content safe and your data private, you can run your own server.
Along with custom feeds, one of the fantastic features Mastodon offers is going back to timelines and only seeing posts from accounts you follow in your Home feed.
So instead of waiting for an algorithm to insert your content into your followers’ feeds, they’ll see it in their Home feeds alongside the content of all the other creators they follow.
To create content, Mastodon uses text-based posts, images, videos, polls, thumbnail cropping controls, custom emojis, and more. has a variety of options including
One drawback of Mastodon is that every server is different.
Each server has its own rules and regulations regarding what content is allowed. Although you can create your own blocklists, you are still limited by the rules of the server of your choice unless you manage your own.
On the other hand, if you find a server with moderation rules that you agree with, it can be seen as an advantage.
Overall, Mastodon is a great alternative to Twitter and a great competitor to Bluesky.
Less popular are decentralized social media apps
- Lens Protocol – A blockchain social media app powered by the Ethereum cryptocurrency
- Minds – ActivityPub based social media app that uses Bitcoin and Ethereum
- DTube – A decentralized alternative to YouTube
- Mirror – Web3-based publishing platform
- Steemit – A decentralized app designed to work like Reddit
Final thoughts
Decentralized social media is still in its infancy, but its popularity is growing rapidly due to the way some of the most popular social platforms are managed.
The concept is refreshing.
So, if you haven’t thought about using such platforms, I would highly recommend it.
Even if you don’t have a particular focus on one of them, you can still use the social planner as usual They went viral or SocialBee to cross-post content you create for other platforms.
So you can immediately start building a presence on platforms like Bluesky without investing much time on the platform.
For a tip: SocialBee is one of the only social media schedulers that offers a way to schedule content to apps without API integration. This is similar to the notification reminder system that schedulers used for Instagram before adding scheduling directly to their API. This is pretty cool.
Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. We may make a commission if you click on certain links.
