“Decentralised social networks are capable of distributing power to a certain extent, but control does pop up in other places. The fediverse is very decentralised with over 30k servers, but virtually all software is dependent on the Mastodon API, and every Mastodon competitor quickly realises that implementing the Mastodon API is mandatory in order to be part of the fediverse. The Mastodon API is not part of the ActivityPub protocol, and the code is owned by a self-styled dictator for life. Every human structure has leaders after all, and in the case of the fediverse, it is more implicit.

ATProto has chokepoints too, but what stands out to me about them is that they are so much more explicit…”

Via: https://fediversereport.com/bluesky-decentralisation-and-the-distribution-of-power/