Thanks to Twitter chaos: Mastodon doubles the number of users

Twitter is still going haywire. While users and advertisers are annoyed by the chaos, the developers of the alternative app Mastodon are happy. Because there the number of users doubled.

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter after much back and forth, the media has reported daily about the chaotic conditions at the micro-blogging service.

But while some are annoyed, the German alternative offer Mastodon is happy. This is reported by both German and international media.

User numbers at Mastodon are doubling

Like Mastodon founder Eugen Roschko in one post writes on the social media platform, the network has more than one million active users per month for the first time.

Hey, so we hit 1,028,362 monthly active users across the network today. 1,124 new Mastodon servers since October 27th and 489,003 new users. That’s pretty cool.

Mastodon is also known outside of Germany

Like the news site Heise Online reports, it is not only German users who turn to Mastodon. International bloggers are also apparently deciding against Twitter.

Interesting: Researchers in particular seem to be creating accounts on the social network from Germany. That comes from a report of the US science magazine Science out.

Scientists are losing trust in Twitter

The mass layoffs on Twitter in particular seem to be a cause for concern in the scientific community. Because the platform has so far played an important role in the dissemination of knowledge between research and the public.

By cutting entire teams, including employees responsible for fighting misinformation, trust in the social media service is falling. The researchers apparently believe that a reasonable discourse in the network may no longer be possible in the future.

Musk’s interpretation of freedom of expression also goes too far for some scientists. They believe that his comments on the subject could be taken by some users as a relaxation of the norms for Twitter interactions.

Mastodon as a platform for public discourse

With the opening of a user account on Mastodon, the researchers seem to want to escape the increasingly toxic atmosphere on Musk’s social media platform. For example, ESA astronomer Mark McCaughrean.

At some level, I’ve made the decision that I personally don’t want to support its ecosystem.

Above all, McCaughrean wants to use social media to exchange ideas with fellow scientists, artists, journalists and the general public.

Twitter development unclear

Of course, Mastodon’s user numbers aren’t even remotely comparable to those of Twitter. At the moment, the researchers in particular seem to be creating their mastodon handle only as a precautionary measure. We want to wait and see how the situation develops in the future.

However, if over time more people decide to switch to Mastodon or another alternative platform, it could soon become very quiet on Twitter.

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