WordPress, owned by Automattic, has acquired the plugin Activity Pub for WordPress with the aim of improving integration with Fediverso. This acquisition will enable WordPress.org and WordPress.com blog owners to reach their readers on federated platforms like Mastodon, among others.
The purchased plugin will allow readers to follow WordPress blogs on their preferred federated platforms, view blog posts, and respond with comments. Replies posted on federated sites like Mastodon become comments on blog posts. Currently, the ActivityPub plugin supports federated platforms such as Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, HubZilla, Pixelfed, SocialHome, and Misskey. According to the plugin’s statistics page, it has been downloaded over 35,000 times to date.
The drive for the adoption of Fediverso
Fediverse adoption is on the rise, and WordPress.com’s integration with the ActivityPub protocol is a big step toward greater adoption. Other publishers, such as Medium and Flipboard, are also embracing Fediverso and integrating their platforms with Mastodon. Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has been a proponent of Fediverso, and with the acquisition of this plugin, Automattic has taken a big step toward adoption of the protocol.
Mullenweg’s vision of the Fediverse
Mullenweg has been a proponent of the Fediverse and believes that it is a way to create a more decentralized and open web. In the past, Mullenweg has stated that he sees Fediverso as an alternative to centralized social networks like Twitter and Facebook. With the acquisition of this plugin, Mullenweg hopes that WordPress.com can reach a wider audience and promote the adoption of the Fediverse.
In addition to the ActivityPub adoption, Automattic is also testing other protocols such as Nostr and Bluesky. Nostr is a decentralized social networking protocol where users can choose who they want to share their personal information with. Bluesky is a project backed by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, that seeks to create a decentralized protocol for social media.
Without a doubt, the adoption of the ActivityPub protocol is a great step towards a more decentralized and open web. However, much remains to be done to encourage the adoption of Fediverso. As more publishers and developers adopt the protocol, more tools and features are likely to be developed to improve the user experience, impacting privacy and data ownership.
