What is Mastodon, the alternative social network to Elon Musk’s Twitter?

Less than two weeks ago the billionaire Elon Musk bought the social network Twitter. Since then, they have been sounded the staff layoffs in the US, Europe and Asia, Complaints from various workers or the future plans for users of the platform. Now it begins to gain strength as possible profile leak, dissatisfied with the course taken by the company. Complaints have been a trend for days and the social network Mastodon, of quite similar operation, does not stop growing. According to data from the company itself, more than 230,000 people just in the last week.

Some users have several days looking for alternative spaces and it seems that Mastodon He is one of the best off. This platform, founded in 2016, claims to have more than 655,000 accounts in their ranks, of which a third would have joined during the last week. His interface is reminiscent of that of Twitter, but its operation and logic vary a bit. It is a decentralized social network and of Open Sourcein which users write messages (they are called toots) that can be answered, shared or supported. Profiles can also follow each other. Notifications, multimedia support and search tools. So far, all similar.

Its main difference is the dynamism it offers its customers in navigation. Mastodon allows to create different servers, which are called instances or communities. These spaces are managed by the users themselves and give the possibility of writing messages that are only read by its members, as well as others that can reach the entire platform. Each user chooses the server in which he prefers to host his data, in a similar way to that proposed by email providers. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon does not make suggestions of followers in which you might be interested. You have to search for them yourself, one way or another depending on the server you are registered on. In addition, being a decentralized space, it cannot be sold either.

Mastodon is free and does not support advertising, although nothing prevents someone from writing a message promoting

As usual, Mastodon it is gratuitous and does not support advertising, although it is true that nothing prevents someone from writing a message promoting your brand, product or service. There are also no common rules moderation, since each server has its own patterns. In fact, there are several reports of people warning of inappropriate messages or what incite hatred. These peculiarities could structure the controversies around this social network, especially if it continues to grow at this rate.

“The highest level ever seen”

Mastodonwhich in recent days has been a trend in Twitter, claims to be experiencing “growth never seen before”. The platform used to record spikes in new users every time its competitor was mired in controversy or suffered falls, but never at these levels. According to his calculations, this may be due to the arrival of Elon Musk at the controls of Twitter. “In the last week, 230,000 users have registered and many returned to their old accounts,” the company acknowledges in a Twitter thread. However, there are several people who are still cautious about landing on this new platform.

We want to give thanks to the author of this write-up for this incredible content

What is Mastodon, the alternative social network to Elon Musk’s Twitter?