News aggregator Flipboard is taking a new step in its development strategy on the open social web. It’s been two years since the company began a major metamorphosis to strengthen interactions between its users, a dynamic that seems to be continuing. In fact, it has just announced on Thursday the takeover of nearly 100 Press.coop mirror accountsa service that broadcast content from major international media on the Fediverse. Will this precipitate the fall of Empire X?
The Fediverse is a universe where social platforms communicate with each other, offering an alternative freer and more open to large centralized platforms like Facebook or X. Mastodon is one of them, as is Pixelfed (alternative to Instagram) or PeerTube (alternative to YouTube which emphasizes open source and community).
A changing media ecosystem
Press.coop, launched a year ago by Hello.coop under the direction of Dick Hardt, set itself the mission to enrich the information offer on decentralized social networksespecially on Mastodon. The service initially created mirror accounts of the X pages of the main international media (Reuters, AP, WSJ, NYT, BBC, CNN).
Faced with price changes to Twitter’s API (Application Programming Interface: set of rules and specifications that allow two software programs to communicate with each other), Press.coop then turned to RSS feeds to maintain this automated replay.
This integration is all in all quite logical and is part of Flipboard’s strategy. to adopt the ActivityPub protocoltechnical base of Mastodon and universal language of the fediverse. The application now allows its users to follow and interact with Mastodon accounts, while offering its thematic magazines on the Fediverse. In 2023, Flipboard had already launched specialized editorial “desks” (technology, culture, science) on its own Mastodon server, Flipboard.social.
News publishers will soon see their audiences merge between their existing Flipboard followers and those inherited from Press.coop accounts – some like NPR with as many as 10,000 followers. Press.coop ceased operations yesterday, with account migration expected to be completed by the end of the month, according to the announcement posted on the service website. This acquisition rtherefore reinforces Flipboard’s position as a credible alternative to and will ultimately contribute to consolidating the Fediverse by offering it greater visibility and attracting new users. Particularly those in research services that are more respectful of their privacy and less subject to the tyranny of algorithms.
- Flipboard takes over nearly 100 Press.coop accounts to strengthen its presence on the open social web, Fediverse.
- This integration allows Flipboard users to follow Mastodon accounts and access its themed magazines via the ActivityPub protocol.
- The recovery of Press.coop subscribers will strengthen Flipboard against X and give more visibility to Fediverse, attracting an audience tired of traditional social networks.
