The Fediverse is a decentralized collection of social networking services that can communicate with each other using a common protocol. The federated structure of these services more closely resembles the Internet's initial services (e.g., email), as well as the Internet itself.
Instead of dealing with a proprietary, centralized service, you can use a free/libre open source software (FLOSS)-powered service and join one of many existing service instances. If something about that instance ever bothers you, you can take your data to another instance, or decide to start your own instance.
If the idea of a healthier, freer online experience sounds appealing, you may want to check out the following Fediverse services, instances, and resources.
- BookWyrm
- Social reading and reviewing, decentralized.
- Castopod
- Your free and open source podcast host.
- Funkwhale
- A platform for all your audio.
- Lemmy
- A forum and link aggregator for the Fediverse.
- Mastodon
- The radically different, free and open-source decentralized social media platform.
- Owncast
- Free and open source livestreaming.
- PeerTube
- A tool for sharing online videos.
- Pixelfed
- The free and open source decentralized photo sharing social media platform.