Bluesky and Mastodon Users Are in a Conflict That Could Shape the Future of Social Media

Decentralized social networking platforms Bluesky and Mastodon are in a battle over how to bridge the gap between the two — and whether there should be a bridge at all. The conflict over the matter is evident on GitHub, with comments that could mold the future of the internet, according to TechCrunch.

To date, Mastodon stands strong as the most established decentralized social networking platform. It now has 8.7 million users after growing significantly in size during 2023 as consumers looked for other options to X (previously known as Twitter). Bluesky became available to the public last week and rapidly brought in 1.5 million new users in a matter of days. As a result of this, it raised its total user base to 4.8 million.

Bluesky is on the brink of unveiling its AT Protocol, a revolutionary networking technology designed to drive the evolution of social applications. With this open-source software, users will have the freedom to establish their own networks, and each server will seamlessly communicate with others. As a result, users will only need a single account across all social networks operating on the protocol. On the other hand, Mastodon operates on a distinct protocol known as ActivityPub, preventing native communication between Bluesky and Mastodon users.

The battle here is that some Mastodon users would like things to remain how they are without bringing the gap.

Ryan Barrett, a software developer, came to find this out “the hard way” when he made it his mission to connect ActivityPub and the AT Protocol with a bridge named Bridgy Fed.

The origins of this conflict can be traced back to the blogging culture of the early 2000s. During this period, individuals grew increasingly wary of having their emotions and personal reflections indexed on Google. Bloggers sought to share their posts publicly to engage and connect with communities aligned with their messages, often on platforms like LiveJournal. However, they also harbored concerns about the potential exposure of such intimate expressions to unintended audiences.

Barrett has no allegiance with either of the two decentralized social platforms, but since the protocols are open source, any third-party developer can build on the existing code. As Bluesky federation gets closer, some Mastodon users came to know about Barrett’s project and were not happy about it.

Barrett set out to “make the bridge opt-out by default,” implying that public Mastodon posts could potentially appear on Bluesky without the author’s awareness, and vice versa. This sparked a strong discussion among Bluesky users, with one individual calling it “the funniest github issue page I have ever seen.” The discussion over the default opt-out feature escalated into unsupported legal threats and descended into unconventional personal attacks.

Despite working on similar projects to Bridgy for around 12 years, Barrett has not experienced such a heated reaction to his work.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Barrett said, “It hasn’t been easy the last couple of days, being the main character of the fediverse.” However, he is mindful of the concerns that some Mastodon users have about their posts showing up in places they didn’t want them to.

“A lot of the people there, especially people who have been there for a while, came from more traditional centralized social networks and got mistreated and abused there, so they came looking for and tried to put together a space that was safer, smaller and more controlled,” he explained. “They expect consent for anything they do with their data.”