Twitter is working on an open standard for social media

Twitter is deploying five people to work on a social media standard. Founder and director Jack Dorsey announced this. It is intended that not only Twitter, but also other social media can use the standard.

The standard should be open and decentralized, says Dorsey. Twitter’s technical director should lead the team, which should consist of five people. Then Twitter should use the open standard and other social media should be able to do the same. It is unknown how the open standard would compare to the alternatives that already exist, such as Mastodon. Dorsey don’t rule out Twitter to join an existing initiative.

According to Dorsey, the standard is necessary for several reasons. First, it is now difficult for social media to fight against harassment and false information on platforms. It is also difficult for users to estimate how algorithms work and to build alternatives through them. Also, current social media would be more focused on posts that cause anger than on posts that inform. Finally, decentralized techniques such as blockchain enable a different kind of social media.