this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, Mbin, etc).

If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to !moderators@lemmy.world!

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In the graph above I've arranged the 28 Threadiverse instances with at least 200 monthly active users (MAU)—orange instances running Lemmy, green Piefed, and red Mbin—on the basis of which instances they defederate.

Each instance has its MAU count listed below it, sourced from the latest MAU figures at Fediverse Observer, with adjustments made to the totals for Piefed (due to undercounting by outdated instances, as noted here; I used @Vicinus@piefed.zip's suggested estimate of 7,200 Piefed users) and Mbin (due to tardigram.com having a duplicate listing).

After adjustments, there are an estimated 43,287 monthly active Threadiverse users (35,184+7,200+903), of whom 87.84% are on the 28 largest instances. The percentages listed alongside the MAU figures correspond to each instance's share of the total MAU count.

Defederation data was sourced from Federation Checker. The tool doesn't support Mbin instances, so I left fedia.io in its own category. If any defederations are missing, feel free to let me know. Ideally such a chart should also include community blocks to better illustrate which instances block what, but that data doesn't appear to be as easily searchable.

I also noticed cases of some instances being listed as being defederated by another instance, despite not appearing on the defederation list for that instance (i.e. reddthat.com and lemmygrad.ml are listed as being mutually blocked, despite neither having the other on their block lists). In testing that federation, I noticed that !wholesome@reddthat.com did not federate to Lemmygrad while !memes@reddthat.com did, so clarification on that matter would be helpful.

While I'll update my generalized chart as needed to correct errors, perhaps at some point an automated federation mapping tool similar to the one feddit.de formerly hosted could be developed to more completely illustrate instance federation.

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[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 18 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Very proud of lemmy.zip! Joined very early on cause the name sounded cool lol, and apparently a lot of others also did. If i remember right we had a vote on defederations and the only major one to happen(or maybe the only one, idk) was exploding heads which was a nazi instance with CSAM on it so that was obvious, even that was mainly cause of the CSAM. I really like the approach of users being able to block instances and communities rather than the instance deciding for me. I still have ml and hexbear blocked tho cause they banned me after i stood up for trans rights or something lol

[–] LincolnsDogFido@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I'm feeling the same way. I've bounced around a few places since joining. I started on midwest.social which was great for a while, but I think the instance grew more than the dev could keep up with. I started seeing connectivity issues and problems displaying content so I reluctantly migrated to .world to see what joining the largest instance would be like. The technical issues went away but I couldn't figure out why I could no longer see /c/piracy until I realized that they're a bunch of pushovers that defederated from dbzer0 based on some liability bogeyman. So I found myself on Lemmy.zip where I can police my own content and have no technical issues.

[–] Million@lemmy.zip 6 points 5 hours ago

.zip and Demogodrick definitely cool.

I also lucked out by joining here just because I couldnt join more popular instances at the time. Happy that I landed here

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Well that's a confusing graph.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 3 points 29 minutes ago

Yeah I cant understand it at all.

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Since defederating is essentially an explicit block list and is directional, my assumption is that the groups that are circled have defederated from the things they're pointing at. I could be wrong.

Map needs a key/legend.

The red circled stuff seems to be only one possible option, but isn't visually very distinct, and the red circle shouldn't be broken like that, just make sure the lines are all visible.

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 hours ago

Apologies for the confusion; didn't want to make it overly cluttered, but in retrospect I see that a legend would have been useful. I'll incorporate suggestions in a revision.

[–] mehquestion@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, as someone who is struggling to understand the concept of federation...this doesn't help me at all.

I guess what its saying, if you're on lemmy.world, you can't access content on lemmy.zip?

[–] lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

If I'm reading it correctly, lemmy.world cut ties from lemmygrad.ml and hexbear.net while hexbear.net and beehaw.org cut ties with lemmy.world. lemmy.zip appears to be connected to everyone.

[–] mehquestion@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Why would they do that? I'm unaware of internal issues in Lemmy at this point?

[–] khorovodoved@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 hours ago

Ideological differences. Lemmy.world is liberal, while lemmygrad and hexbear are hardcore communists (aka tankies).

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 7 points 6 hours ago

The ones at the bottom that are below the None category aren't defederated from anyone, so they can access every instance.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 hours ago (2 children)
[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 2 points 17 minutes ago

There are a lot of threads here about this. Feddit.org wants to keep in line with local laws in their jurisdiction, dbzero thinks that this is a pro-zionist stand and genocide-denial.

[–] JaN0h4ck@feddit.org 12 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The admins of feddit.org are afraid of german police coming for their servers and therefore ban content that is possibly illegal in germany quite liberally. Since german courts are sometimes weird this includes some Pro-Palestine content that could be interpreted as Anti-Israel (e.g. the chant "From the river to the sea..."). That topic in particular pissed of the dbzero community which then defereated feddit.org for being "Zionists".

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, it is kinda. Anticipatory obedience makes you complicit.

[–] JaN0h4ck@feddit.org 3 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Yup. Anticipatory obedience isn't the way to go!

[–] Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago

Well, if you have to personally liable for the shit a bunch of internet strangers say, you might think differently. That is one boon of being a mega-corp. You are somewhat immune to SLAPP-lawsuits and the like.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 hours ago

Uhm, this was translated right? "vorauseilender Gehorsam"

[–] basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Does that mean that discuss does not federate with lmmy.ml, lemmygrad, programming.dev and hexbears?

[–] maxmalrichtig@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

We might read the diagram differently, but I only see a defederation with lemmygrad.

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 hours ago

Correct 👍

[–] waldfee@feddit.org 3 points 4 hours ago

No, discuss is only in the blue box, which's arrow points to lemmygrad, so they defederated from them.

You must not read this Graph like a Venn diagram

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 2 points 5 hours ago

Wow, infosec.pub is based!

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 19 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I really like this but I can not figure it out. Would you be willing to make the data available?

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 20 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

The MAU numbers for instances were sourced from Fediverse Observer and calculated as a percentage of 43,287 for the percentages, but here's a table of the defederation data:

Lemmy
Instance Defederates
lemmy.world Hexbear, Lemmygrad
sh.itjust.works Beehaw, Hexbear, Lemmygrad
lemmy.zip N/A
lemmy.ml fedinsfw.app
feddit.org fedinsfw.app, Hexbear, Lemmygrad
hexbear.net lemmy.world
lemmy.dbzer0.com Lemmygrad, Feddit.org
lemmy.ca Hexbear, Lemmygrad
lemmy.blahaj.zone fedinsfw.app, Hexbear, Lemmygrad
programming.dev Hexbear
discuss.tchncs.de Lemmygrad
sopuli.xyz fedinsfw.app, Hexbear, Lemmygrad
lemmygrad.ml fedinsfw.app
lemmy.today N/A
slrpnk.net Hexbear, Lemmygrad
feddit.uk N/A
infosec.pub fedinsfw.app, Hexbear, Lemmygrad, Lemmy.ml
reddthat.com N/A
jlai.lu Lemmygrad
beehaw.org sh.itjust.works, lemmy.world, Lemmygrad, Hexbear
pawb.social Hexbear, Lemmygrad
thelemmy.club N/A
feddit.nl N/A
Piefed
Instance Defederates
fedinsfw.app Hexbear, Lemmygrad
piefed.social Hexbear, Lemmygrad
piefed.ca Hexbear, Lemmygrad
piefed.zip N/A
Mbin
Instance Defederates
fedia.io ?
[–] Crescent@fedinsfw.app 4 points 4 hours ago (3 children)

What the hell are Hexbear and Lemmygrad and what did they do that everyone's blocking them?

[–] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 minutes ago

Lemmygrad and Hexbear (I think) are instances filled with "tankies", which means that they can't shut up about how awesome authoritarian regimes that present themselves as communist, like China, and some others, like Russia, are, despite all the crimes against human rights those countries' governments keep committing (according to tankies, the governments they support don't actually commit any atrocities, it's just "lies spread via anti-communist propaganda", which they also use as a excuse for silencing anyone presenting criticism about their favourite regimes). Please keep in mind that lots of communists don't see countries like China as communist, despite the countries calling themselves that.

As these instances have lots of tankies, they tend to have toxic communities. Their users also tend to hate trans people for some reason, and sometines try to harass people because of it, which is a big no-no to instances that want their trans users to feel safe, such as Blåhaj Zone.

[–] Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

To add an annecdote, hexbear has this handy link to an image: (nsfw) https://hexbear.net/PPB

Ask yourself why a discussion platform might keep this image quick-link and you may understand why everyone defederates from them.

[–] Krono@lemmy.today 3 points 4 hours ago

Lammygrad are Marxist Leninist, Hexbear are dirtbag leftists. That makes them the natural enemies of center-left and centrist instances like .world.

In my opinion it comes down to a disagreement over capitalism. One side wants to destroy it, the other side wants to moderate it.

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