The future of mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook and X appears increasingly uncertain. Following years of data breaches, corporate censorship and personal security concerns, frustrated users have flocked to decentralised platforms such as Bluesky, Mastodon and Steemit in search of greater autonomy over their personal data and content. Recent geopolitical events have only exacerbated this migration, with 70,000 users joining Mastodon the day after Elon Musk announced his takeover of Twitter in 2022, and an additional 50,000 users joining Bluesky after X declared it was changing its block function.
The promise of greater user autonomy is certainly appealing, but are decentralised social networks really the cure-all for social media fatigue?
We take a closer look at how these platforms work, examining the implications for user privacy and what the future of social networking could look like.
How do decentralised social networks work?
The key difference between traditional platforms and decentralised networks is how they store, transmit, and process user data. While traditional platforms store user data on one central server, decentralised networks use blockchain technology to distribute user data across multiple independent servers, creating a network of independent communities that can interact with one another as part of a larger system. The absence of a single point of control means that users have a greater say in where and with whom they share their data.
Bluesky, created in 2019 by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, is a decentralised platform currently gaining traction due to this user-centric model. Not only does it allow users to host their account on servers aside from those owned by Bluesky, but it also offers extensive customisation options. Users can block out words and phrases they do not want displayed on their feeds, essentially creating their own algorithm.
What are the security and privacy implications?
The privacy and security outlook for decentralised networks is, on balance, optimistic. With no single point of control, there is a higher resistance to cyberattacks because information is much harder for a hacker to locate and access. Further, as users have greater control over their data, the risk of their personal information being shared with third parties is lower. Traditional platforms like Facebook have typically relied on the income generated by targeted advertising and have thus drawn scrutiny for sharing user data without their consent. This was the case in 2018 when a co-founder of Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy firm, told The Guardian and The New York Times that the company had harvested millions of Facebook user profiles to inform voter targeting during the 2016 US election.
Some decentralised networks such as Steemit have introduced user cryptocurrency rewards as a way of bypassing the reliance on monetising user data. The blockchain technology used in decentralised networks further lessens the risk of third-party access as data transactions are recorded, allowing users to see whether their data has been tampered with.
Moderation
Given the absence of one controlling entity, users can set more specific guidelines for content moderation within their own communities on decentralised platforms, as opposed to a blanket policy affecting an entire platform. Communities can also vote on moderation changes, which promotes a much more democratic online space. According to the results of an Oxford University study presented in 2024, decentralised networks can significantly increase user empowerment in this respect.
Drawbacks
These advantages are, however, somewhat of a double-edged sword.
The lack of a central authority to enforce overall moderation means that misinformation and harmful content can spread quickly. Bluesky’s 2024 moderation report showed that following its spike in popularity, its moderators received 17 times the number of user reports relating to harassment, trolling and intolerance than in 2023.
The platform has also faced problems due to its unconventional verification system, which requires users to add a custom domain to their handle. According to a study conducted by Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, 44% of the top 100 most-followed accounts on Bluesky had doppelganger accounts.
As these networks become more established, they may also have to contend with tougher regulatory scrutiny concerning data privacy laws. Platforms using cryptocurrency rewards in particular may face stricter anti-money laundering measures like identity verification processes, which could undermine the user privacy that decentralised networks set out to create.
In some respects, the focus on data privacy has had the opposite effect. Decentralised networks function by allowing independent online communities to interact with one another. If a user shares a post within one community, that post can then be viewed by hundreds of users within another community. Users are thus dependent on those controlling the specific server to implement privacy controls, as opposed to traditional platforms where users can actively limit the visibility of their posts themselves. This could facilitate the easy identification of user contacts and increase hostile third-party visibility. Additionally, decentralised networks often lack a privacy option. Bluesky’s FAQ page states that “anyone on the web” can see a user’s posts and that there are “currently no private profiles.” Mastodon, on the other hand, has attempted to tackle this, introducing locked accounts for users so that they are notified every time another user tries to follow their account. The user can then choose to accept or deny the request. Any new content shared will also default to being private.
Further, the use of blockchain technology, whilst ensuring safer data storage, raises the question of whether user data can ever truly be deleted. According to Bluesky’s website, when a post is deleted, it is immediately removed from the user-facing app, but it can take a while for text-based posts to be fully removed from its data storage.
What does the future look like for social networking?
While decentralised networks show great promise for a privacy concerned generation, we are unlikely to see them dominate the social media landscape anytime soon. Bluesky’s recent moderation issues demonstrate the difficulty of refining these nascent platforms at the same pace as their growing popularity. There also remains the challenge of striking a balance between meeting evolving regulation around data privacy and maintaining individual user privacy. In the short term, therefore, we are more likely to see these two types of networks co-exist and may also see mainstream platforms tweaking their own systems to placate an increasingly frustrated user base.
In the much longer term, however, the independent communities created by decentralised networks could create a more intersectional form of social media. In January 2025, Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon, floated the idea that users should be able to choose and move freely between different social platforms. This would suggest an interconnected online space in which users of networks like Bluesky and Mastodon could communicate in a similar way to how a Gmail and AOL email account can interact despite existing on different servers. Some progress was made towards this vision in June 2024 with the launch of Bridgy Fed, a technology enabling users of Bluesky and Mastodon to function within each other’s platform.
However, we are not quite there yet. Decentralised networks have some obstacles to overcome before they can prove tough competitors to traditional platforms. Until then, social media will likely remain a hybrid model with users slowly migrating to decentralised networks as big corporations continue to frustrate them.
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