Mastodon, the free, open-source, decentralized micro-blogging social media platform, has surpassed a million monthly active users for the first time in its history.
The platform's explosive growth was announced today by Eugen Rochko, the creator of Mastodon, who noted that almost half of the new users (489,000) joined the platform since October 27, 2022, when Elon Musk's sealed the purchase of Twitter.
The sudden influx of users to Mastodon is caused by a notable wave of migration from Twitter, as it uses a similar interface and social feed format.
Mastodon features 500-character posts called "toots" arranged in a chronological feed, user tagging (mentions), privacy posting options, a hashtags system, and more.
Some people are leaving Twitter because its new owner, Elon Musk, decided to impose controversial account verification and freedom of speech policy changes, announcing them almost immediately upon completing the takeover.
The new policies brought a measurable rise in hate speech and aggressive trolling as various parties tested the limits of moderation under Elon Musk's management.
A second, even more, voluminous wave of migration to Mastodon came when Twitter announced massive layoffs of personnel, which didn't resonate well with the community.
Mastodon's moment
While Mastodon looks similar to Twitter, it's fundamentally different, operating on a network of self-hosted servers (instances) that each has its own terms, privacy options, and content moderation policies.
The network of individual servers unites under a network of co-existing instances thanks to a federation system, practically allowing Mastodon users from any server to interact with each other.
Thanks to this decentralized approach, Mastodon does not belong to a single person or company, and it's not operated for profit, so there are no ads, although people may still promote services independently.
However, like Twitter, direct messages to other users on a server are not encrypted and can be viewed by the admins of the server hosting the messages. Therefore, users should not use Mastodon DMs to send private or sensitive information.
Since October 27, 1,124 new servers have been added to the Mastodon network, opening up to welcome new users looking to join.
However, the massive influx of users has created an operational strain on the network, with many reporting issues on the mobile app, account creation verification email, server availability, and more.
Hence, the transition could be smoother for everyone who attempts to join Mastodon, with technical problems added to the otherwise gentle learning curve.
Twitter is undergoing a stormy period of change, and either for better or worse, some of its users will explore alternatives like Mastodon.
Whether or not the user migration to Mastodon will have the duration to shape a new reality in the social media industry or if an entirely new platform will pop up to take advantage of the situation is too early to tell.
Comments
thatirish - 1 year ago
Whether true or not, I've got a Twitter account and have not noticed any increase of hate speech or anything else on the site. I must be frequenting the wrong places. But, I tend to stay out of the political firestorm that frequently rages on Twitter.
TsVk! - 1 year ago
The content moderation team hasn't changed, nothing much has changed except the owner and the outrage at that owner.
Winston2021 - 1 year ago
"Users" or BOTS deactivated/suspended? Anyway, with 400 million users, who cares?
November 3, 2022
Estimates from Bot Sentinel suggest that more than 875,000 users deactivated their accounts between October 27 and November 1, while half a million more were suspended.
And what is Mastadon?
July 6, 2019
Mastodon attempts to censor free speech social network Gab by blocking its domain
Apparently a "safe space" echo chamber.
206 million users access Twitter daily. 75% of them are not based in the US and don't give a rat's posterior about brain dead US politics.
Oh, and as George Carlin said, sarcastically, "So I know that a little later on this year, you’re going to have another one of those really swell... elections that you like so much. You enjoy yourselves. It will be a lot of fun. I’m sure as soon as the election is over, your country will improve immediately."
Winston2021 - 1 year ago
Twitter Daily User Growth Hits 'All-Time Highs' During First Week Under Musk
NOV 07, 2022
While Twitter may be shedding virtue-signaling advertisers (who totally weren't looking for any reason to trim their ad budgets), daily user growth during the company's first full week under Elon Musk has hit 'all-time highs,' according to an internal document seen by The Verge.
According to an internal FAQ given to the company's sales team for use in conversations with advertisers, Twitter's monetizable daily user (mDAU) has jumped to more than 20%, while "Twitter’s largest market, the US, is growing even more quickly."
The company has added more than 15 million mDAUs, "crossing the quarter billion mark" since the end of Q2, when it stopped reporting financials as a public company.
NoneRain - 1 year ago
Mastodon has what now, 0.25% of Twitter's user base? That's cool, I guess.