According to Moneycontrol, who broke the story, and Platformer, who provided additional details, the tech giant’s potential Twitter rival is codenamed “P92”.

Moneycontrol, after allegedly speaking to people familiar with the matter and seeing an internal product brief, stated that it is set to be Instagram-branded, with users able to log in with their Instagram credentials.

However, further information about the product is currently unknown — and it’s not quite clear whether it’s simply an idea at this stage, or if development is already underway.

What has been shared, though, is P92 is set to be decentralised if it does come to fruition. Decentralised social networks, seeing as they operate on independently run servers rather than a centralised server owned by a business, offer users more control and autonomy of their data and content.

“We’re exploring a standalone decentralised social network for sharing text updates,” said a Meta spokesperson in a statement.

“We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.”

The news comes as Elon Musk’s roughly $44 billion buyout of Twitter has continued to leave long-time users concerned about the platform’s longevity.

In response to Musk’s first few waves of changes — which has included the introduction of the Twitter Blue paid subscription service, and the winding down of its COVID-19 misleading information policy — Mastodon, the decentralised social media platform, experienced explosive growth at the end of 2022, as Twitter users sought an alternative social network.

The decentralised platform saw its user active user base climb from 380,000 to more than 2.5 million in December. However, the percentage of Mastodon’s monthly active users is apparently in decline after last year’s steep growth, highlighting that despite a desire to migrate, it isn’t currently meeting the broader needs of in-limbo Twitter users.

Significant changes have also been made when it comes to Twitter’s headcount. The company boasted around 7,500 employees in October 2022 — the figure is now just over 2,000. This sharp reduction has been inferred by some as the reason underpinning Twitter’s recent spat of outages.

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Twitter aside, the fact that Meta is potentially considering building a decentralised, text-based social media platform underscores the potential for decentralised platforms to be adopted by a broader user base — and how big-name tech giants like Meta can get involved.

The initial surge in Mastodon user growth proved that, intellectually, there is an appetite for decentralised platforms outside of the Web3 community — or, it doesn’t dissuade users from signing up, at least.

Could Meta’s Twitter rival product, if it does get built and shipped, be the product that brings decentralised social media to the masses?