Mastodon, a Nonprofit Twitter Rival, Rejects Funding to Preserve Its Status

Categories: Technology

Mastodon, a Nonprofit Twitter Rival, Rejects Funding to Preserve Its Status

Open-source Microblogging Platform Mastodon Enjoys Increase in Users After Twitter Shakeup

Mastodon, a popular open-source microblogging platform and rival to Twitter, has recently received multiple investment offers from Silicon Valley venture capital firms. However, the company’s founder, German software developer Eugen Rochko, has chosen to reject these offers in order to preserve Mastodon’s non-profit status.

Since its founding in 2016, Mastodon has gained a significant user base. However, the platform has seen an even greater increase in popularity in recent months, particularly following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk for $44 billion in October. Many users have expressed concerns over Musk’s management of Twitter and have turned to Mastodon as an alternative.

Despite the opportunity for financial gain, Rochko has remained committed to maintaining Mastodon’s non-profit status and ensuring that the platform remains accessible and open to all users. As a result, Mastodon has turned down the investment offers and will continue to operate as a community-driven, open-source platform.

Mastodon’s founder, Eugen Rochko, has received multiple investment offers from US-based investors in recent months. However, he has chosen to reject these offers in order to preserve the open-source microblogging platform’s non-profit status. Rochko believes that Mastodon’s independence and the variety of moderation styles across its servers are important factors in its appeal to users. Mastodon’s user base has grown significantly in recent months, particularly following Twitter’s acquisition by Elon Musk and the temporary suspension of Mastodon and several journalists’ accounts by Twitter. Rochko has stated that Mastodon will not “turn into everything you hate about Twitter,” and that the platform’s non-profit status is “untouchable.”

Mastodon

Elon Musk’s Twitter blocked links to rival Mastodon

Since October 27, when Elon Musk bought Twitter, a lot more people have been downloading the open-source microblogging platform Mastodon every day. According to data from Sensor Tower, daily downloads of Mastodon rose from 6,000 on October 27 to a peak of 243,000 on November 18. Usage of other smaller rival platforms, such as Tumblr, has also increased. Mastodon is like Twitter in some ways, but it is made up of many separate servers that are each in charge of their own moderation. Users can join one server, but they can also connect with people on other servers throughout the “federated” system. Eugen Rochko, the founder and only owner of Mastodon, wants to keep the platform’s non-profit status, so he has turned down investment offers from US-based investors more than once. Mastodon will continue to rely on donations to fund the platform, and it has over 8,500 donors on the membership platform Patreon, through which it is raising over £25,000 per month. Mastodon has had some problems, like server problems and confusion about how to moderate on different servers. However, the number of users is expected to keep growing, and Rochko has said that his long-term goal for the platform is to replace Twitter and other commercial social networks.