BBC Research & Development is exploring how the BBC can establish a presence in the distributed collection of social networks known as the Fediverse.
The most common software used in this area is Mastodon, a Twitter-like social networking service with around 2 million active monthly users. The BBC has recently added some of the BBC’s social media accounts including BBC R&D, Radio 4 and 5 Live, and is look to add otger accounts in the future.
Mastodon is a “federated” social network. Unlike traditional social networks controlled by a single organisation, Mastodon’s federation allows anyone to run a server and host users. Each server has the autonomy to set its own moderation and membership rules. This model is more like email where you can email anyone, but as an individual, you choose which email provider you want to use.
Unlike most Mastodon servers where you can sign up for a personal account, the BBC is only using its instance to host BBC accounts, such as @BBCRD@social.bbc or @BBC_News_Labs@social.bbc
The use of its own domain also means that the accounts can instantly be identified as belonging to the BBC.
It’s planned to run the server for an initial six months.
Further Information:
- BBC Mastodon Server: https://social.bbc
