Tumblr will add support for ActivityPub, the open, decentralized social networking protocol that today is powering social networking software like Twitter alternative Mastodon, the Instagram-like Pixelfed, video streaming service PeerTube, and others.Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg — whose company acquired Tumblr from Verizon in 2019 — suggested the user “come to Tumblr” as the site would soon “add activitypub for interconnect.”“Don’t stress,” he said, before clarifying that Tumblr first has to deal with the waves of new users coming in right now from Twitter but that support for “interop and activitypub” were due to come “ASAP.”In short, this announcement means Tumblr would move from being only a niche blogging platform to becoming a part of a larger, decentralized social network of sorts — and one whose user base has grown in size in recent days as people flee Elon Musk’s Twitter in search of new communities.— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) November 21, 2022We are mostly dealing with the waves of new users right now and keeping everything scaling but interop and activitypub are ASAP.Tumblr was already benefiting from the Twitter exodus, having grown its U.S. app installs 7% week-over-week from the week prior to the acquisition and the 7 days after, data.ai had reported earlier this month.“I just want there to be an open alternative, I want you to be able to choose your algorithm…we’re trying to make Tumblr a space for art and artists…,” he had said earlier this year, one where “you’re not doomscrolling, you’re joy-scrolling.”More recently, Mullenweg has been trying to directly recruit former Twitter employees to come work for Automattic, setting up a dedicated website for the purpose."