As Twitter users fret over the direction that new owner Elon Musk is taking the company, masses of users have hopped over to Mastodon, an open-source Twitter alternative. The news that Twitter is rebranding to ‘X’, a change already live on the website, spurred a surge in usage numbers for the open-source rival.
Since October 27, when the SpaceX and Tesla CEO formalized his Twitter takeover, Mastodon has gained 2.1M monthly active users. But what is Mastodon, and should we all be getting our accounts set up?
If you’re a Twitter purist who likes to use basic functionality like private DMing, quote-tweeting and user-friendly onboarding, Mastodon might not be for you. But if you’re looking to try something new on the social internet, then why not give Mastodon a whirl? Elon Musk isn’t there!
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or any
