Twitter: Thousands of users are switching to Mastodon, but they are surprised at how different it is

Twitter is in clear crisis after it was confirmed that its main offices have closed due to employees not accepting the new working conditions imposed Elon Musk. Even though the billionaire in charge of Tesla D SpaceX he tries not to pay too much attention to it, it’s a fact that the social network he currently runs is not having a great time and thousands of users are moving to other platforms because of this fiasco. One of the main alternatives is mastodondirect competitor Twitter.

However, these people who fled the Musk administration notice that mastodon very different from Twitter. While the platform promises to be “an open, free, and federated network,” running it on a multi-server basis is far more complex. Here are the main differences between these social networks that are taking the new user base by storm.

Differences between Twitter and Mastodon

mastodon It is divided into several servers and each of them has its own rules. There is no chief or sovereign administrator like Elon Musk that you can define these rules on all servers and rather there are “small communities” with their respective “leader”. Depending on the community in which he finds himself, the experience changes radically.

In the past few days, as the number of users has increased, some admins have decided to be very harsh in their efforts by banning users who do not abide by said community’s rules. Others, on the contrary, are much more relaxed about it. This decentralization is one of its most notable characteristics, and while preferred by many, it can also lead to undesirable practices on the part of both users and managers. Fortunately, it is possible to switch to another server.

As regards the submission of information, Twitter It shows us posts that don’t always match our tastes. On the other hand, mastodon focuses on circles of friends and interests of users to facilitate the formation of “echo chambers”, information bubbles where content will almost always be related to people’s preferences. This can be good or bad depending on the user’s vision.

The function that Twitter D mastodon share are private messages that aren’t actually private at all. Since the platform’s security is centered at the server level, an anonymous user will not be able to read your messages, but administrators will be able to because these texts are not encrypted.

Mastodon is a competitor to Twitter, but they are not the same

As far as development is concerned, Twitter It’s just on another level. Some of the best engineers in the field have gone through the company to solidify the great platform it is today. On the other hand, mastodon It’s a project that relies on volunteers to fix bugs and vulnerabilities, so its cybersecurity capabilities can’t handle the huge influx of new users.

Despite this, mastodon It has mechanisms like 2-step authentication and other stronger privacy controls like applying filters, deleting old messages, and approving subscribers. As for the constant fight against trolls, it will be extremely difficult for administrators, since this platform does not have a global message search system.

Decentralization mastodon enough to separate it from what Twitter he is and represents, but this is also one of his biggest advantages and differences from the social network commanded by Elon Musk Currently.

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