Who owns Mastodon? 30K users join open-source alternative in a day after Elon Musk buys Twitter
Mastodon, a social media site that is often seen as an alternative to Twitter, received roughly 30,000 new subscribers on the day Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Mastodon, a little-known social network, has been trending in recent times. According to Google Trends data, search interest in the social network skyrocketed following Elon Musk's Twitter takeover announcement.
Who owns Mastodon?
Mastodon is a decentralized social network site that enables users to build their own private networks, which is currently owned by German Engineer Eugen Rochko. In terms of microblogging functionality, the social network is similar to Twitter. However, one significant distinction in infrastructure is Mastodon's decentralized nature. The social network is made up of multiple autonomous servers that function according to their own rules but may still communicate with one another via a shared platform. As a result, Mastodon's social-networking architecture has been compared to how email works through different providers, such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail.
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Mastodon has a long way to go before it can compete with Twitter in terms of size. The mastodon.social server has around 662,000 members, although the overall unified network is expected to have over 3.5 million. Twitter, on the other hand, has 217 million daily active users. However, the goal of Mastodon isn't necessarily to replace Twitter. It is to return control of data to the user and to build platforms that will last forever. Eugen Rochko, the German developer who founded Mastodon in 2016, stated last year in an interview, "At some point, I was like, come on, how many more times do I have to go through this?! We need something that’ll work forever. Rochko also emphasized how individuals are always switching platforms for a variety of reasons.
Why Mastodon is in news lately?
Mastodon became a social media buzz lately since Musk purchased a stake in Twitter earlier this month, and Mastodon has seen a rise in new users. Later, Mastodon's CEO, Eugen Rochko, subsequently told Motherboard via email that the crash happened due to performance concerns. According to Daily Mail, he wrote, “I’m sorry I couldn’t have responded sooner. I was working all day on fixing performance issues on the Mastodon servers I operate due to the influx of new and returning users following Twitter’s acquisition by Elon Musk.” Rochko also stated that Mastodon has gained 41,287 active members, including both returning and new users.
Here's a short video explaining the basics of how Mastodon works in simple terms: https://t.co/U9rTfctEK8
— Mastodon (@joinmastodon) November 8, 2019
He also wrote on his Mastodon profile saying, Hi! mastodon.social is being slow right now, as far as I can tell because there's twice as many people using it at the same time as ever have; I'm working on making it go fast again, but in the meantime, do remember to invite people to joinmastodon.org instead of directly to mastodon.social. People don't have to be on the same server to follow you! Thanks!" The increase in traffic was large enough that Rochko decided to remove mastodon.social from the list of communities that new users can join when they sign up. Later that day, Rochko stated that the speed issue with the mastodon.social server has been fixed adding, “I'm stressed out. I just want to play Dota. But I realize this is a kind of ‘do or die’ moment."
Previously, Musk announced on Tuesday, April 26, that he is acquiring Twitter for around $44 billion in cash at $54.20 per share. In a statement, Musk stated that he wants to make "Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential—I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.” Meanwhile, Mastodon had a recent clash with Truth Social, a social network created by former President Donald Trump. According to The Verge, Truth Social used Mastodon's code without adhering to the software's licensing restrictions. Mastodon lawyers wrote the network a formal letter requesting that its source code be made public.