Mastodon's decentralized approach allows for more freedom and control over personal data and moderation policies compared to centralized social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko remains conflicted about the future and the potential scale of Mastodon, as he grapples with the question of how big and influential he wants the company to become in a rapidly changing social media landscape.
Meta's adoption of decentralized social networking could bring positive changes and advancements to the wider ecosystem of decentralized social media, although it raises concerns about antitrust considerations and content moderation regulations.
Deep dives
Mastodon's Decentralized Social Network
Mastodon is a decentralized social network built on the Activity Pub protocol. Unlike traditional social media platforms, Mastodon allows anyone to download the software and create their own server, which can then connect to a network of other servers that share the same protocol. This decentralized approach allows for more freedom and control over personal data and moderation policies. Users can choose to follow accounts on different Mastodon servers, and interactions like posts, likes, and follows are understood universally across platforms. This concept of interoperability and decentralization is seen as a big advantage over centralized social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Eugene Rochko's Vision for Mastodon
The CEO and founder of Mastodon, Eugene Rochko, has spent a lot of time considering the size and impact he wants Mastodon to have as a company and a service. He has grappled with the question of how big and influential he wants Mastodon to become in a world where platforms like Twitter are constantly changing and growing. Rochko acknowledges the surge of interest in Mastodon after Twitter experienced various issues, but he remains conflicted about the future and the potential scale of Mastodon. Additionally, the subject of monetization is a significant topic of discussion. While many social media platforms focus on generating large profits, Rochko has deliberately chosen a different path, managing Mastodon primarily through a Patreon and rejecting the idea of pursuing excessive wealth. He cites the Linux model as inspiration and wonders how Mastodon will continue to evolve if a company like Meta dominates the decentralized social network space with its financial resources.
Meta's Role in Decentralized Social Networking
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has expressed intentions to decentralize and collaborate with protocols like Activity Pub and Mastodon. While some skepticism remains, with concerns about Meta's true intentions, evidence suggests that Meta is actively engaging in the engineering and development of decentralized protocols. Meta's adoption of decentralized social networking could have significant implications for antitrust considerations and content moderation regulations. The potential for Meta's massive user base to transition to a decentralized network creates both excitement and anxiety within the Mastodon community. However, particularly in light of Meta's profitability expertise, there is a sense that their involvement could bring positive changes and advancements to the wider ecosystem of decentralized social media.
Mastodon's Growth and User Statistics
Mastodon currently has over one and a half million monthly active users across its instances. In November, when Elon Musk took over Twitter, Mastodon experienced a spike of 2.5 million monthly active users. However, the way active users are counted on Mastodon can be inflated due to sign-ups and immediate logins. Despite this, Mastodon is still growing, and recent changes to the official apps and website have accelerated its growth.
Running Mastodon Servers and Monetization
Running a Mastodon server for personal or small private groups is relatively simple and affordable. However, hosting a server for a community or the public involves more responsibilities, including moderation and finding moderators. Some servers monetize through services like Patreon, while others explore paid account options. Mastodon's CEO is open to diverse business models in the ecosystem and believes that different servers with varying rules can coexist, although they strive to maintain a balance between permissive and restrictive servers.
ActivityPub is back in the news, thanks to Meta’s Threads launch and Elon’s continued immolation of Twitter — now X. That makes this the perfect time to dig into the Decoder archives to hear what Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko thinks about the future of social media. Mastodon got a head start as the most well-known of the rising decentralized social networks, but that’s changing fast. Bluesky, on a competing protocol, is picking up steam and Threads promises to decentralize in the future, using the same ActivityPub protocol as Mastodon. That’s a big deal, with big potential.
Verge Editor-at-Large David Pierce has been covering all this very closely. Before we jump into the interview with Rochko, I spoke with David to help update everyone on what ActivityPub even is, and what it could mean for the future of social media.
