Post Musk’s Twitter acquisition, users are exiting the platform and joining new apps like Mastodon
From charging users for account verification to Musk’s views on content moderation to the unending twists and turns in the whole saga, the fallout from Twitter’s acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk has irked many users to the extent that they are actively looking at other alternatives. Here are some of the popular ones:
- Mastodon
The Germany-based, free, and open-source social network Mastodon has seen a surge in the number of fresh sign-ups and active users since Musk’s Twitter takeover late last month. The network was founded by Eugen Rochko in 2016, who claims that Mastodon recorded 120,000 new users in the four days after Twitter’s acquisition, and more than 4,89,000 users have joined the service since late October.
The platform has similar microblogging features to Twitter where users write posts called toots. They can also reply to others, like posts, repost them and follow other users on the platform. To join, users will have to select a server that is based on themes like city, interest, technology, etc. Every server is operated by an independent organization or individual that may differ in content moderation policies. Further, users can easily move their profiles to a different server at any time without losing followers and can even create their server.
- Koo
The Indian social networking site Koo has crossed 50 million downloads recently and aims to hit 100 million by 2023, according to a report by Business Standard, which further stated the company is open to hiring ex-Twitter employees who have been sacked under the leadership of the new boss Elon Musk.
Co-founded by entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka and launched during the coronavirus pandemic, Koo is a multilingual microblogging platform that caters to an audience in vernacular, Indic languages. Though the company’s guidelines prohibit hate speech and offensive content, Koo has been accused of being lax when it comes to content moderation, especially of certain right-wing groups, in the country. It has a yellow-and-white interface and users can categorize posts with hashtags. They can further mention others in their posts and reply to people.
- Tooter
A Swadeshi answer to the American platform Twitter, Tooter is an Indian social media network originally forked from the Mastodon project. The company’s codebase is free and open-source which means users have a choice to either have an account or they can spin up their Tooter server. Users can communicate with users on their federated servers from around the world, including users on Tooter.
In terms of functionality, Totter users can write posts, and like and repost content of other users, features that are similar to Twitter. The app automatically makes you follow the creator of the website Nanda (@nanda) along with some other accounts, while users can go on and follow other account holders. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Virat Kohli, Abhishek Bachchan, Kiran Bedi, etc are some prominent names that already have their Tooter account.
- Tumblr
An American microblogging website founded by David Karp in 2007, Tumblr allows users to publish short blog posts called tumblelog along with other multimedia content like photos and GIFs. To begin networking on the platform, users have to sign-up with their details. Users can customize their own pages and even make their blogs private. They can follow other users and see their recent posts.
Under construction…
Bluesky
Founded by the former chief executive officer of Twitter – Jack Dorsey – in 2019, Bluesky is a social media platform that is touted as open, decentralized social media. Although the platform is still in its Beta phase and has around 30,000 signups waiting to try out the app’s trial version, Dorsey’s goal with Bluesky “is to build a durable and open protocol for public conversation. That it not be owned by any one organization but contributed by as many as possible.” Some media reports pointed out that many users voluntarily exited Twitter after Musk’s acquisition and joined Bluesky, which promises that its users’ data will never be sold and they can control their data and the algorithms that have access to their data. It is expected to launch soon!
