Tumblr will add support for ActivityPub, the open, decentralized social networking protocol that today is powering social networking software like Twitter alternative Mastodon, the Instagram-like Pixelfed, video streaming service PeerTube, and others.

On the surface this seems like a good thing. Are there any potential downsides to this?

  • vertexarray [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I can't think of any, other than increased demand on mastodon servers, but that'd be a consequence of any kind of growth. The federated model means the harm tumblr could theoretically visit upon mastodon and other activitypub platforms in the aggregate is pretty limited.

    Personally I don't have a lot of stake in federation between the two, but the intangibles are interesting — will be cool to see how the userbases respond to federation, and if federation between disparate platforms becomes the norm even on for-profit platforms.