Why Mastodon is touted as the alternative Twitter
STORY: The mammoth-branded social network is seeing a surge in new signups
Mastodon was founded five years ago by German programmer Eugen Rochko
It looks much like Twitter, with short posts often featuring links and hashtags
But users don’t Tweet, they “toot”
Unlike Twitter, it’s not owned by any one company
Mastodon is a decentralized network of servers, or “instances” in its own jargon
No single person or entity can control it, and users can even set up their own server
It’s crowdfunded, and gets a small grant from the EU
On Monday, Rochko said user numbers for Mastodon had surpassed 1 million after rising by more than 3,000 per hour
However, the total remains miles behind Twitter’s 238 million
And critics say the decentralized system makes it chaotic and hard to navigate
Other Twitter alternatives include Discord, previously a favorite among gamers