Decentralised social media

Decentralised social media spread functions such as data storage, content distribution, identity and governance across users or independent operators rather than one provider, and the article groups them by architecture into federated, peer-to-peer and blockchain-based types. Federated projects such as Mastodon and PeerTube run on open web standards through interoperating instances, and none follows a for-profit model, so they rely on donations, sponsorship, grants and volunteer labour. Few peer-to-peer systems have moved beyond the prototype stage, with Secure Scuttlebutt and Briar cited as exceptions with active userbases. Drivers include long-standing concerns about centralised power and, more recently, the content moderation policies of mainstream platforms.