Mastodon will change its structure over the next six months to become owned by a European non-profit organization. Its managers explain in the announcement that “The intention is that Mastodon is not owned or controlled by a single individual«in clear reference to Elon Musk with X or Mark Zuckerberg with Threads, Instagram and their social networks.
Mastodon was one of the great alternatives chosen by the millions of users who fled from Twitter (today hate messages, hoaxes and misinformation, as well as their use by the executive for his political campaigns alongside Donald Trump.
Mastodon hoped to provide an alternative social network for users who were frustrated by their lack of control over timelines and content on other networks. Although after the initial frenzy, the enthusiasm around the service died down and other platforms like Bluesky gained more attention from what they call ‘Twitter refugees’, Mastodon remains very important as the most popular way to interact with the fediverse.
Control of Mastodon
The article announcing that Mastodon reveals that it will transfer ownership of key components of the platform, such as the name, copyrights and other assets, to a new non-profit organization, is titled “People should own the town square”. Another evil wink to Elon Musk, who has referred to
And social networks (and their control) are on fire after Mark Zuckerberg announced a change in operation in relation to the content moderation in Metawhich can impact the 3 billion users that the corporation has on its numerous media, see Facebook, Instagram, Threads or WhatsApp. Critical media place these changes in the “Silicon Valley billionaires struggle to gain sympathy” of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.
Faced with them, the founder of Mastodon, Eugen Rochko, will voluntarily lose control of the social network in compliance with the promises of “ensure that the decentralized platform was never for sale and was free from the control of a single wealthy individual”. Their big vision remains to leave Mastodon users in control of the social network, making their own decisions about what content is allowed or what appears on their timelines.
To achieve the “intended independence” for all users, Mastodon’s structure needed to “evolve,” they say from the social network, as the community continues to grow. Mastodon, which will continue to be based primarily in Europe, will manage the day-to-day operations of the new European non-profit entity “thus establishing a new legal home for Mastodon”.
Mastodon seems to be betting that users keep looking for alternative social networks as popular apps implement unpopular policies or their control passes into hands as controversial as Elon Musk. The blog analyzes the progress in a “privacy-friendly search tool” which could be used to explore the entire Fediverse, a collection of independent social networks that you connect to. The user experience will not be affected by the transition to a nonprofit, they promise.
