Similar to Mastodon, the different instances can represent single individuals, a small group of friends, a shared common interest, or host anything. It allows a “local” feed but can also connect to any part of the federated network. An instance might even choose to not broadcast to the larger federation at all.

These instances also spread out the workload of any single server by decentralizing the network, which allows Lemmy to grow without falling into a capitalist growth method.