Mastodon is not exactly a new platform, and it gained a lot of popularity in India in 2019. Following Elon Musk’s takeover, some users are fleeing away from Twitter to Koo and Mastodon.

Elon Musk mocks Twitter rival Mastodon.

By Abhik Sengupta: Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, is mocking the platform’s alternative Mastodon, but some may say he’s gone far this time. In a tweet, which now appears to be deleted, he lashed at users complaining about Twitter’s new updates and asked them to join “masterbatedone” if they have a problem. Musk’s sarcastic tweet on Mastodon came at a time when the former’s servers were down for hours for many users. Since Twitter’s ownership changed last week, some users are leaving the platform to join rivals like Koo and Mastodon.

What is Mastodon?

Mastodon is not exactly a new platform, and it gained a lot of popularity in India in 2019. Back then, many users fled to Mastadon after Twitter suspended senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde’s account.

Mastodon offers similar features as Twitter, though it operates differently. It is an open-source social networking service which allows users to either host their own ‘community’ or join an already existing one.

Instead of tweeting, Mastodon lets users ‘toot’ their thoughts.

Is Mastodon really hurting Twitter?

Despite these campaigns, Twitter is seemingly doing very well. According to an internal document obtained by The Verge, Twitter’s daily user growth hit ‘all-time highs’ during Musk’s first week as the owner.

The report notes that “Twitter’s monetisable daily user (mDAU) growth has accelerated to more than 20 per cent, while Twitter’s largest market, the US, is growing even more quickly”. Just for reference, Twitter, in its second quarter report, said that the platform has 237.8 million mDAUs.

But Musk’s biggest challenge does not stop here, as many advertisers are fleeing away even if there’s a growth in the user base. They fear that misinformation might increase on the platform amid the US midterm polls, and their ads could be placed next to a problematic article or tweet.