Mastodon

Updates from the Mastodon team

News

Twitter buyout puts Mastodon into spotlight

The news of Elon Musk buying Twitter has put Mastodon into the public spotlight as an alternative social network, rapidly exploding our growth with over 30,000 new users in just a single day. This is because at Mastodon, we present a vision of social media that cannot be bought and owned by any billionaire, and strive to create a more resilient global platform without profit incentives. We believe that your ability to communicate online should not be at the whims of a single commercial company.

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

Official Mastodon for Android app is coming soon

We are developing an official Android app which will be free and focused on helping new users get started on the fediverse

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

Trump's new social media platform found using Mastodon code

From media reports and individual findings that various people have presented to us, it seems that the new social media platform owned by the former president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, so-called Truth Social, is using Mastodon’s source code with various visual adjustments. The platform has not formally launched yet, but it was made accessible ahead of time. Users were quick to note that the terms of service included a worrying passage, claiming that the site is proprietary property and all source code and software are owned or controlled by them or licensed to them:

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

EUNOMIA public pilot launch

On behalf of the EUNOMIA project, in which I represent Mastodon, I am happy to announce that after nearly 3 years of development there is now a public pilot for the Mastodon community. But first, what is EUNOMIA and who is EUNOMIA? EUNOMIA is a “digital companion” for social media, a set of additional functions that aim to combat the spread of misinformation by helping you critically analyze social media posts before re-sharing them.

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

Mastodon now a non-profit organisation

In June, I was able to officially register Mastodon gGmbH after nearly 8 months of legal work (“gGmbH” means “non-profit limited liability company”). A non-profit limited liability company in Germany is structered and operates similarly to a for-profit limited liability company with a few key differences. The founding document of the company is written such that the activity of the company is working towards goals that benefit the public; the shareholders may not receive any revenue from the company’s activities and can at most withdraw the funds that they originally paid in; employees may not receive extraordinarily high wages; and the company can receive donations which are then tax-free, although any other income that does not fit the definition of a donation continues to incur various taxes.

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

Developing an official iOS app for Mastodon

Starting on Feb 8, 2021, we will be developing an official iOS app for Mastodon together with Sujitech and Lickability, which will be free to download and focused on helping new users get started

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

Gab switches to Mastodon's code

After crowdfunding millions of dollars, social media platform Gab abandoned its own code and switched to the freely available Mastodon software in early 2019 as a way of circumventing Google’s and Apple’s ban on their own app from their app stores, since offering Mastodon’s client-side API would allow any existing Mastodon app to be used to access Gab. We have never had any sympathy for their thinly (if at all) veiled white supremacist platform so that was not a welcome move on our part, however the license that we publish our software under (AGPLv3) allows anyone to use it as they see fit as long as they keep the same license and make their modifications public.

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

Introducing the Mastodon Server Covenant

To provide a safer experience to new Mastodon users, we are changing the joinmastodon.org server picker

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder

News

Mastodon's 2 Year Anniversary

Mastodon was first announced to the public through Hacker News, a link aggregator site for programmers, on October 6, 2016. Now we’re celebrating the 2 year anniversary! 🎉

Eugen Rochko

CEO / Founder