This week, we map the visual layer of the fediverse with current numbers (June 2026): Pixelfed, Loops, PeerTube, and ... Flickr?

Pixelfed: ~100K MAU across 700 servers. @dansup has been building it for eight years, mostly alone, turning down VC offers and funding it through a Kickstarter that raised CA$138K for a nonprofit foundation.

Loops: federated short-form video, also by dansup. mid-4,000s MAU, 26 servers. opt-in algorithmic feed (the default is chronological), trust-score moderation, no AI training on user content.

PeerTube: 47K MAU across 1,500+ servers. Framasoft (French nonprofit). the most infrastructure-heavy platform on the fediverse.

The visual web is the most expensive layer of the internet to decentralize. None of this was built on venture-scale economics.

Part 2 of the Fediverse Beyond Mastodon series.

More here: federatedmind.com/the-visual-f…

#Fediverse #Pixelfed #Loops #PeerTube #ActivityPub #OpenWeb #Owncast #FederatedVideo

According to the @EUCommission #TechSovereignty package, released today, the #EU is currently reliant on foreign providers for over 80% of its critical digital products, services, and infrastructure. We're thrilled to see the Commission acknowledge that this is an issue, and lay out a strategy to fix it.

We view this announcement as validation of Mastodon’s mission at the highest level; the Commission’s strategy is grounded in European values that Mastodon shares including security, sustainability, and human-centric design.

What’s more, the EU's explicit strategy is to build and deeply invest in #OpenSource offerings across the entire technology stack. The significant nature of this commitment provides institutional validation and will bring significant policy, funding, and competitive advantages to open source projects like #Mastodon.

#Fediverse #OpenWeb #SocialWeb #SocialMedia #FOSS #OSS

Mastodon

2026-06-03 14:52:14

The @EUCommission just released a statement positioning open source as central to #Europe’s #TechSovereignty.

We couldn’t agree more. #OpenSource is critical to a robust and independent society.

Here’s our full statement: blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/06/…

#Mastodon #Fediverse #SocialWeb #OpenWeb #DigitalSovereignty

Europe's New Tech Strategy Puts Open Source Front and Centre

Mastodon's thoughts on the EU's newly released tech and open source strategy

^{Mastodon Blog}

The @EUCommission just released a statement positioning open source as central to #Europe’s #TechSovereignty.

We couldn’t agree more. #OpenSource is critical to a robust and independent society.

Here’s our full statement: blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/06/…

#Mastodon #Fediverse #SocialWeb #OpenWeb #DigitalSovereignty

@Epic_Null @witchescauldron
Yes, the #openweb in inherently social as its sites linking to sites, so, the term is an overlay from the #dotcons - its very much not clear what value this term brings when we try and scale horizontally rather than vertically. So in this sense its more compost to shovel. But for meany people here vertical scaling dose matter so for them, it's useful?!

We currently do not attempt to bridge this divide.

digital sovereignty is a made up meaningless term in this case - of a liberal idea of a fear based economy.

The #openweb is at its base trust and standards based #4opens so we don't deal with that mess at all #KISS

Kinda keep thinking people need to say this more clearly.

hamishcampbell.com/we-keep-mak…

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Sadly, it isn’t - and it’s painfully visible. @evan called this right from the start, and he was right on this.

This is #techshit, spreading a miasma over the #openweb. And when it inevitably fails, the rotting stink will linger, making it even harder for people to take the step they need to take.