Like Twitter, Mastodon works as a space for microblogging, where users share videos, images and texts (maximum 500 characters) on a timeline.
Filled with hashtags and memes, the timelines on both platforms can be quite similar. But, According to Mastodon fans, its differences are several. Let's go to the main ones:
DECENTRALIZATION
- Mastodon is operated by thousands of computer servers.
- These servers are, to a large extent, managed by volunteers who come together in federations, that is, communities.
- Communities are formed based on their own interests. Look some of the examples of communities:
General: general matters
Regional: aimed at socializing people from a certain location
Tech: to discuss technological matters
LGBT: to unite LGBTQIA+ people
Activism: dedicated to social issues
Games: to talk about game projects
Art: to share artistic creations
Music: for music lovers
Furry: to discuss pets
Food: lovers of good food meet here
Humor: jokes, memes and funny things
Source: CanalTech
- “Instead of a single website, it is a network of millions of users in independent communities who can interact with each other, seamlessly. No matter what you like, you can meet passionate people by posting about it.” This is how the application is defined in AppleStore.
Twitter users jump to Mastodon – but what is it? (BBC)*
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INDEPENDENCE
While Facebook and Twitter are controlled by one company and exist on a single platform, Mastodon is a kind of open, collectively owned network. In other words, it is not “a thing” and does not belong to one or another group or person.
AUTONOMY
On Twitter, all users use and depend on the same service. This means that decisions are made from the top down: an authority, person or company can impose wills on others. If the system were closed, everyone would be affected, for example.
In Mastodon, the service-user bridge is more fragmented. Users decide to choose their own provider or run their own instance, in the same way that Internet users can choose services like Gmail or their own server to send and receive emails. Thus, it would be impossible for one or a few extremist voices to speak louder than the majority, as they would quickly be isolated by groups and users. Read more about on Yahoo!
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A hail of controversy fell on Twitter after Elon Musk took over the company last week. The wave of people dissatisfied with Musk criticizes, in particular, the changes in content moderation policies made by the businessman, who describes himself as a 'freedom of expression absolutist'.
Some users were not satisfied with hotly debating the “new direction” on the network. Since April* this year, the hashtag #LeaveTwitter was already raised in a campaign to abandon the network in protest against Musk. Opponents see its arrival as a defeat in the fight against hate speech and other digital crimes.
Big people fight
According to programmer and founder Rochko, Mastodon reached 1.028.362 monthly active users this Monday (07), a level far below its major rivals. According to Reuters, Twitter has 238 million daily active users. Facebook claims to have 1,98 billion daily active users.
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But Eugen Rochko should have known that this was not an overnight change. The young man started Mastodon when rumors first circulated that PayPal founder and Musk ally Peter Thiel wanted to buy Twitter. Now, Rochko’s network proclaims itself “the largest decentralized network on the internet.”
In Germany, where the option has grown, Germany's data protection commissioner is campaigning for government bodies to close their Facebook pages. The argument is that the network's rules conflict with European privacy laws.
