A day after Twitter imposed new limits on the number of posts users can see (based on their verification status), rival social media company Mastodon reported a significant increase in traffic.
According to a July 2 post from Mastodon creator and CEO Eugen Rochko, the platform’s active user base surged by at least 110,000.
Mastodon is a German rival of Twitter with a similar tweet-like structure, though it highlights that it’s user-driven and decentralized. While Twitter is controlled by one entity, Mastodon runs via a network of thousands of dispersed computer servers and is primarily administrated by volunteers.
Rochko also thanked the Mastodon team for “coming to help with the infrastructure despite it being Sunday” and reposted various messages from long-time users and Mastodon developers, including one post giving advice to new users:
“Follow as many people and hashtags as you can. This is not Twitter; there is no algorithm, and it is not going to fill your feed with stuff it thinks you like. You have to curate it yourself.”
The user, Courtney Heard, ended the post by saying that once users curate their feed, “it’s so much more vibrant and rewarding than Twitter has been for a year.” At the time of writing, Mastodon reported 324,000 active users.
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The influx of activity on Mastodon comes after Elon Musk, the owner and former CEO of Twitter, announced that the platform would impose new limits on the number of posts accounts can read in a day.
According to Musk’s new rules, Twitter users with verified accounts will be allowed to view 10,000 posts daily, while new and unverified accounts will only be allowed 500.
Musk didn’t cite a specific reason behind the new limitations, though he tweeted about the platform “getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users.”
Recent data has also revealed an alarming number of fake accounts within many communities on Twitter.
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