Meta Admits to Blocking Links to Pixelfed, Instagram’s Decentralized Rival

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, admitted to removing links to Pixelfed, a decentralized competitor to Instagram, intensifying discussions about its control over the social media landscape.

Meta Temporarily Blocks Links to Pixelfed

Recent turmoil has hit the social media landscape. Users from Bluesky and 404 Media report that Meta temporarily blocked links to Pixelfed, a decentralized photo-sharing platform, on Facebook. Posts containing links to “pixelfed.social” were consistently deleted, allegedly for violating Facebook’s “community spam rules.”

An Error, According to Meta

A Meta spokesperson stated that the removal of these posts was a mistake and assured their restoration. This statement has raised numerous questions.

Pixelfed, an Instagram Alternative

Pixelfed operates on the ActivityPub protocol and is part of the “fediverse,” a network of decentralized publishing platforms. It offers Instagram-like features allowing users to share, like, and comment on photos. Additionally, users can cross-post to other apps or transfer their posts to different photo-sharing platforms via ActivityPub. Notably, Meta is integrating aspects of this protocol into Threads, enabling simultaneous posting on Threads and Mastodon, for instance.

A Context of Change

This blocking occurs amid significant changes at Meta. The company recently announced major modifications to its moderation policy, ending its third-party fact-checking program and revising its policy on hate speech. Furthermore, Pixelfed has seen an unprecedented surge in traffic to “pixelfed.social,” suggesting many users might consider switching from Meta platforms to this alternative. In this climate, it’s conceivable that Meta might preemptively block competitors, similar to actions taken by X with links to Mastodon and Substack.