Why Millions Have Chosen Mastodon Over Twitter
Is the Twitter bird on its last flap? The cute little mascot- recently sold at a Twitter fire sale- is flying south and the Mastodon is taking over. Or so it seems. Twitter has held wave after wave of layoffs, including some critical departments like the Trust and Safety Council. Red flag to jump ship? Maybe. No trust, no safety, and now, no journalists.
All fantastic reasons why Mastodon, a decentralized Twitter alternative, is growing by leaps and bounds. According to The Verge, since Elon Musk took over Twitter, Mastodon has gone from 300,000 monthly users to 2.5 million between October and November of this year. Welcome to the new ice age, folks.
The new numbers directly coincide with Musk’s takeover, so it’s no coincidence. Musk took over Twitter and said that he believed in free speech and that no one should be banned. He was directly speaking to Twitter’s ban on some controversial figures, like past President Donald Trump who drew hate speech and ire to the platform. Musk has since dropped Trump’s ban.
However, Musk has instead decided to ban many seasoned journalists who cover the news. Free speech, what? It seems like Musk wants to play by his rules only when it suits him and millions of Twitter users have had it.
In addition, news of what it’s actually like to work under Elon Musk has leaked, and it appears it’s fairly abusive, sexist, and has no room for work/life balance. With this news, millions of folks have decided to part ways and not give the supposed tech leader any more credence. With millennials and Gen Z looking to only support companies that are ethical in their treatment of employees, as well as the environment, Musk is losing fast.
In fact, the news is so egregious that ex-employees are banning together and gearing up for a lawsuit claiming the layoffs were illegal. According to the law, a company must give notice to the employees, and they must be justified.
Musk demanded workers go back into the office immediately, and when they couldn’t, due to disabilities or older contracts predating him, he fired them. Illegal? That’s what the employees are saying. In addition to the chronically ill or disabled, Musk has also removed an extremely large amount of women from his company. No word on where this lawsuit is.
In happier news, Mastodon is headed up by 29-year-old German engineer, Eugen Rochko who did work under Elon Musk and grew incredibly frustrated. Mastodon believes that there should be no middleman between users and or their audience. Whereas Musk has banned Mastodon links and is charging for usage. Mastodon is free and opensource.
Mastodon was also recently registered as a non-profit. This model seems to attract more users who believe in free speech and journalistic integrity. However, there are many other platforms to choose from if you want to jump the Twitter ship. From Reddit to Discord, to Tumblr, and more, options abound. Only time will tell what “the people” want to adopt on a wide scale similar to Twitter. Maybe the future isn’t one chosen platform. The future is many.
