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Twitter Rival Mastodon Rejects Funding to Preserve Nonprofit Status

29 Dec 2022 2:56 PM | Anonymous

Here is another reason to switch from Twitter to Mastodon: the (only) person in charge of Mastodon has turned down several offers of probably millions of dollars in order to maintain the not-for-profit status.

From an article by Ian Johnston, published in the Ars Technica web site:

Twitter rival Mastodon has rejected more than five investment offers from Silicon Valley venture capital firms in recent months, as its founder pledged to protect the fast-growing social media platform’s non-profit status.

Mastodon, an open-source microblogging site founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko, has seen a surge in users since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October amid concerns over the billionaire’s running of the social media platform.

Rochko told the Financial Times he had received offers from more than five US-based investors to invest “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in backing the product, following its fast growth.

But he said the platform’s non-profit status was “untouchable,” adding that Mastodon’s independence and the choice of moderation styles across its servers were part of its attraction.

“Mastodon will not turn into everything you hate about Twitter,” said Rochko. “The fact that it can be sold to a controversial billionaire, the fact that it can be shut down, go bankrupt and so on. It’s the difference in paradigms [between the platforms].”

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/4vsw7bjx.

Comments

  • 30 Dec 2022 4:04 PM | Anonymous
    Thank goodness! I had been searching for an alternative for Twitter, and signed up for Mastodon a few weeks ago. I like it - a little harder to figure out at first, but manageable!
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