Threads is part of the fediverse, a social network of interconnected servers operated by third parties that can communicate with each other. Each server on the fediverse can be thought of as an individual platform that operates with its own users, content and rules, but can talk to other servers on the fediverse that run on the same protocol. Threads uses a protocol called ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to talk to other fediverse servers that support this protocol.

Our vision is that Threads enables communication between you and people on other servers we don’t own or control. This means that your Threads profile can be followed by people using different servers on the fediverse, and eventually, you’ll be able to follow them from Threads. Your content and information may be shared with those servers, for example, if you interact with content from other servers or if you have followers from other servers. When content and information from other fediverse servers is available on Threads, users from other servers will have the name of their server added to their username displayed on Threads (e.g. someone@fediverseserver.com).

The servers on the fediverse are distributed and decentralized, meaning that changes on one server may not affect other servers. Because of this, changes you make to your posts will affect how they appear on Threads, but may not change how it shows up on other servers. For example, when you delete a post, it’ll no longer be visible on Threads and Threads will ask other servers to delete it, but the post may still be visible on other servers that Threads doesn’t control. Similarly, if you switch your Threads profile from public to private, fediverse sharing will be turned off and Threads will ask other fediverse platforms to delete your content and information, but it may still be publicly visible. Learn about how sharing to the fediverse impacts your privacy and learn more about privacy in the fediverse in the Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy.

Learn more about how Threads is building for the fediverse in our engineering blog.

Our vision is that Threads enables communication between you and people on Threads. If you are a user on another server in the fediverse that enables communication with Threads, you can follow Threads users who have chosen to share to the fediverse and see and interact with their content. Your server will share information with Threads, for example, if you like content from Threads users that’s been shared to your server.

You can learn more about how we process your data in our Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy.