Open-source microblogging site rejects investor funding to stay independent
Mastodon has seen a surge in users since Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October
Twitter competitor Mastodon rejected multiple investment offers from Silicon Valley venture capital firms in recent months as its founders pledged to maintain the platform’s non-profit status.
The open-source microblogging site, founded in 2016 by Eugen Rochko, has seen a spike in users since Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October. Rochko received offers from over five US-based investors to invest significant sums in the platform. However, he believes the platform is not for sale.
Eugen Rochko will not let the platform become what Twitter did, he believes the difference is that Mastodon cannot be sold to a controversial billionaire, shut down or go bankrupt. Recently, Twitter temporarily suspended the accounts of Mastodon and several journalists for sharing content about the flight plans of Musk’s private jet.
Twitter also initially proposed to ban links to rival social media platforms, including Mastodon, but later changed its policy.
In response, Rochko said this was a stark reminder that centralised platforms can impose arbitrary and unfair limits on what you can and can’t say. He also reported that the monthly active users of Mastodon increased from 300,000 to 2.5 million between October and November 2022.
The platform has similar features to Twitter but is composed of many decentralised, independently moderated servers. Users can join one server, connect with people on other servers throughout the federated system.
Eugen Rochko, Mastodon’s founder, is the sole shareholder and he pays himself a salary of around 2,400 euro. Mastodon will continue to rely on donations to fund the platform. The site has more than 8,500 donors on the membership platform Patreon, raising over 25,000 GBP a month.
