Most people don’t think about where their social media actually lives.
Or who controls it.
Or what happens to their content once it’s posted.
They just assume the platform is the platform.
But behind the scenes, a handful of people decide how everything moves.
What gets seen. What gets buried. What gets stored. What gets tracked.
And if that doesn’t sit right with you, you’re not alone. That’s a little too much power for a small group of people to wield.
Here’s the good news: A different kind of social media is starting to grow in the background. One built on openness, transparency, and user control instead of central control.
In this post, 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 operating social media platforms in an open network that spans multiple, self-operated servers rather than one closed network of servers that are all operated by the organization who runs the platform.
It’s a way to build and operate social media platforms in a way that…
- …enhances security by preventing your data from being managed by that singular platform server.
- …allows you to have complete control over your data.
- …protects you from censorship unless your content is harmful or contains illegal activities.
- …includes community moderation.
When decentralized platforms are managed with a blockchain, they’re called web3 platforms.
When they’re designed to be interoperable with other platforms that were made using the same protocol, they’re called federated.
A federated network, also known as the fediverse, is a network of decentralized apps that are designed to work with one another seamlessly.
This means you can create content with one platform and find it published to another that’s built using the same protocol, allowing you to view content from multiple platforms from a singular app view.
Unfortunately, the concept of decentralized platforms is a little complex, so some platforms may not see as much engagement as other platforms do.
Even so, decentralized platforms are a welcome alternative to platforms that shut users out, over moderate feeds, or 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, though its biggest competitor in the decentralized space is Mastodon.
It was founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey while he was still the CEO of Twitter and is now operated by a board headed by current CEO Jay Garber.
Bluesky runs a proprietary decentralized network called the AT Protocol, also known as the Authenticated Transfer Protocol or simply atproto.
In the AT Protocol, users are given a permanent decentralized identifier (DID) when they create their accounts.
They’re also given a configurable domain name. It’s the human-readable handle (that ends in “bsky.social”) you’re given when you set your username on the app.
This allows apps built with the AT Protocol to work as a federated network so you can use your Bluesky account to log into any other app that was built with it.
The goal is for all AT Protocol apps to become interoperable with one another so you can consume content from other apps on Bluesky and vice versa. It will also be possible to move your data from one app to the other.
At the forefront behind the concept Bluesky is built on is data security and privacy.
Your data is stored on Bluesky’s servers by default, but you can also run the app on your own server (called a personal data server, or PDS) if you’d prefer to keep your data private and safe from failures, including breaches and server outages.
This is what separates Bluesky from centralized platforms like Twitter (X), Facebook and Instagram.
What sort of moderation does Bluesky offer?
Bluesky has been called a free speech platform because of the way it operates, but it does have some content moderation built right into its code.
It’s actually one of its most powerful features. You can choose different moderation models for your feed to control what content gets shown to you. You can even import these models from third parties instead of setting up your own.
However, know that although Bluesky is intending to be an open network that cannot control your data, its terms do say it has the right to remove content it feels violates those terms.
What benefits does Bluesky Offer to content creators?
Content stability and data security are huge advantages of using Bluesky over other platforms.
By setting up your own server, you all but guarantee your content is safe from outages that hit the main Bluesky servers and widespread data breaches.
Bluesky also gives users the ability to set up custom feeds so they can control what content they see as they scroll. This means they can set up a feed that includes your account and topics related to your niche to ensure they always see your content when they scroll.
As a creator, you can post text-based posts that have up to 300 characters, images and videos that are up to 60 seconds long. You can also create threads.
Some features, like polls you can create on Twitter (X), are missing, but you can create them with third-party apps that are 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 means the app may become popular among consumers who have grown tired of ads on other platforms.
If you want to schedule Bluesky posts in advance, consider using 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 organize your content into categories and manage it.
Do consumers use Bluesky?
Bluesky opened its app to the public in 2024. It now has over 23 million users and 3.2 million daily active users, according to Theo.io and Similarweb.
It receives 5.4 new users every second.
Following the 2024 United States presidential election, which saw a heavy presence from X CEO Elon Musk, Bluesky usage increased by 500% in the US and 350% in the UK.
In fact, according to Appfigures, Bluesky overtook X in app downloads on November 13th of 2024. During that time, it received an average of 400,000 daily downloads while X dropped to 250,000.
It received over 9 million downloads in the second half of 2024, according to Business of Apps.
Plus, Bluesky gained 3 million new users after X suspended its service in Brazil and 1.2 million new users after X stated it would change its block feature so that users would still see content from accounts they block.
Is Bluesky a Web3 platform?
This is up for debate.
“Web3” is a term to describe platforms that are decentralized and operate on a blockchain network.
However, while Bluesky 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’s much more accurate to say Bluesky is a decentralized platform that operates as a federated network powered by the AT Protocol.
Mastodon
While Bluesky has gained more media coverage and support due to its ties with former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Mastodon was the original Twitter competitor that was built on the idea of forming a decentralized social media app that behaved like Twitter but was not controlled by a singular organization.
Mastodon is built with the ActivityPub protocol, a decentralized protocol designed specifically for social media networks.
Unlike Bluesky, Mastodon did not build their protocol. This makes it a more open platform than Bluesky since it uses a well-known decentralized protocol rather than a proprietary version.
Like Bluesky, any user can run their own Mastodon server. More than 950,000 monthly active users run over 8,500 servers on the platform.
What benefits does Mastodon offer content creators?
Mastodon, as a true decentralized platform, does not collect your data, though it warns that the server you sign up with may have a different policy.
Fortunately, you can run your own server if you want to keep your content secure and your data private.
Along with custom feeds, one fantastic feature Mastodon offers is a return to chronological timelines and only seeing posts from accounts you follow in your Home feed.
So, instead of waiting for the algorithm to insert your content in your followers’ feeds, they’ll see it in their Home feeds alongside content from all of the other creators they follow.
For content creation, Mastodon has a variety of different options, including text-based posts, images, videos, polls, thumbnail crop control, custom emojis and more.
One drawback about Mastodon is the way each server is different.
Each server has its own rules and regulations about what content is allowed. While you can create your own block lists, you’re still limited by the rules of whatever server you choose if you don’t run your own.
On the flip side, this could be seen as an advantage if you find a server that has moderation rules you agree with.
All in all, Mastodon is a wonderful alternative to Twitter and a great competitor of Bluesky.
Less popular decentralized social media apps
- Lens Protocol – A blockchain social media app supported by the Ethereum cryptocurrency
- Minds – An ActivityPub-based social media app that utilizes Bitcoin and Ethereum
- DTube – A decentralized alternative to YouTube
- Mirror – A web3-based publishing platform
- Steemit – A decentralized app designed to operate like Reddit
Final thoughts
Decentralized social media is still in its infancy but its popularity is growing fast thanks to the way some of the most popular social platforms are being operated.
The concept is refreshing.
So, if you haven’t considered using these types of platforms, I’d highly recommend it.
Even if you don’t end up focusing specifically on one of them, you can always use a social scheduler like Viraly or SocialBee to cross post the content you create for other platforms.
That way, you can start building a presence on platforms like Bluesky without investing too much time into the platform right away.
Pro tip: SocialBee is one of the only social media schedulers that offers a method of scheduling content to apps it doesn’t have an API integration for. It’s like the notification reminder system that schedulers used for Instagram before they added direct scheduling to their API. It’s pretty cool.
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