Meta, previously known as Facebook, is developing a new social media app codenamed P92, which will enable users to post text-based updates. According to an email sent exclusively to Platformer, Meta is exploring a decentralised social network for creators and public figures to share timely updates about their interests, which seems quite similar to the popular social media platform Twitter. P92 will allow users to log in through their existing Instagram credentials.
Although there is no release date yet, the project is underway, with the legal and regulatory teams investigating potential privacy concerns. Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, is taking the lead on the project, which is still in its earliest stages. The most remarkable aspect of the project is that the network will be decentralized, allowing users to set up their own, independent servers and rules for content moderation. Building a decentralized network could enable Meta to experiment with an app that pushes back on standard criticisms of Facebook and Instagram. Different groups would set their own community standards, with a “floor” of rules set by Meta. This will be quite similar to how individual communities, known as subreddits, operate on Reddit.
It is unclear what the most successful business model is for such an app, and no one has yet built a profitable, global-scale decentralised network. Challenges developers face include basic social-network functions like following users becoming complicated when accounts are located across a vast network of servers. It’s also uncertain how successful the business model of funding with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) would be, and the ongoing implosion of the crypto economy has made this approach less attractive to the userbase. However, it is clear that now is the time for new social media platforms to make their debuts, since Twitter seems to be making the same mistake as Tumblr, where misunderstanding the user base led to a decline in the overall popularity of the platform.
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