Is Mastodon the new Twitter? Find details

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has yet to go down well with some users, and many are opting for its decentralized alternative, Mastodon. The open source network has surpassed 1 million users in recent days, according to its lead developer and CEO Eugen Rochko. But to be fair, Mastodon has seen outbreaks like this in the past, first in 2017, then in 2019 from users in India who were unhappy with Twitter's policy, and even in May this year when the deal was first announced. by Musk.

Meanwhile, Musk tweeted and then deleted a rude joke mocking Mastodon's name. He also tweeted about Twitter's user base, and usage is at its highest point since the deal. It remains to be seen if we see a fundamental change in Twitter users, as the new Twitter Blue subscription and verification rules are yet to come for many regions, including India. However, if you're willing to sign up for Mastodon in the meantime and are trying to figure out how the platform works, here's a quick guide to doing so.

What is Mastodon?

Mastodon is an open social network for users across the world. In 2016 it was created by Eugene Rochko, and as of now, it has more than 2.2 million registered users. Its user interface and features are a bit similar to Twitter. On Mastodon, users can share 'toots' with photos and videos, follow other users, DM people, make favourites and create lists. The UI of Mastodon is also like Twitter's, where you have the feed on the home page.

A single company does not control Mastodon publications or the specific data of its users. Instead, its open source allows anyone to set up their Mastodon server, where people can sign up. This includes servers created for specific regions and countries or others for particular hobbies.

How is Mastodon different?

Compared to other social networks, Mastodon is different as it runs open source and isn't owned by any single company or corporation. It allows people to create their versions of Mastodon, known as 'instance'. Each Mastodon instance runs on a different server but has a social network at its core.

Users can follow people from other servers and with the same Mastodon instance too. Mastodon instances are owned and modified by the community, and most of them are crowdfunded. Mastodon claims it has "effective anti-abuse tools to help moderate instances as users see fit". Mastodon also says it cannot be either sold or go bankrupt.

If interested, you can sign up on Mastodon through this link https://joinmastodon.org/. Mastodon can be used on desktops, Android and iOS.