Mastodon, Tumblr: Defectors seek alternatives to Musk-owned Twitter

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, users irked by the platform’s new regime have vowed to move their online presence elsewhere, with Germanowned Mastodon attracting the most attention.

 Created in 2016 by the German developer Eugen Rochko, the site presents itself as a “decentralised” social network without advertising where preserving privacy is sacrosanct.

In practice, Mastodon like Twitter is based on postings of small messages, but each new user must sign up to an independently run server and there are thousands of them. In theory, users can interact freely across the Mastodon servers, but this can be complicated and unreliable. On his personal account, Rochko said