Pixelfed, the social media platform that draws attention with its decentralized structure, is now at the service of users with its iOS and Android applications. The open source platform, which was first launched in 2018, was previously only accessible via the web or third-party applications. While the Android application was released on January 9, the iOS application met with users on January 14.
While Pixelfed offers photo and image sharing similar to Instagram, it has significant differences in terms of user privacy. The platform does not contain advertising content and does not share user data with third parties. Based on the principle of decentralization, Pixelfed is built on the ActivityPub protocol, which is also used by many other open source social media platforms. This protocol is also used in other decentralized networks such as Mastodon and Flipboard and facilitates cross-platform communication.
Daniel Supernault, the creator of Pixelfed, announced in his post on Mastodon on Monday evening that 11 thousand new users joined the platform in the last 24 hours and more than 78 thousand posts were shared in total. This development shows that the platform has begun to increase its popularity and is gaining trust among users.
Recently, many Instagram users have been turning to alternative platforms due to Meta’s controversial policy changes. Meta announced that it plans to remove third-party fact-checking services and will allow derogatory comments towards certain groups, such as women and transgender people, with a change to its “Hate Content” policy. Such decisions caused a huge reaction among users and increased interest in decentralized platforms.
Meta blocked Pixelfed links
On the other hand, Meta blocked some links to Pixelfed by marking them as “spam” on Facebook. The company representative stated that this was an error and the blocked content will be accessible again. However, such steps have further damaged users’ trust in Meta.
Pixelfed’s reach to a wide audience with both iOS and Android applications signals that decentralized social media networks will attract more attention in the future. Being ad-free, prioritizing user privacy and having an open source structure puts Pixelfed in a different position in the digital world.