As a message of hope for Twitter users in Europe. On a video, broadcast Monday evening on the same social network, Thierry Breton and Elon Musk stand side by side. The first in a suit, the other in a T-shirt. Two worlds oppose each other: Brussels and Silicon Valley. Together, they talked about the future moderation of content on the social network, now owned by Elon Musk. Because the boss of Tesla wants to make Twitter the new Eldorado of freedom of expression, which frightens the European organization, which has not failed to remind him on several occasions.
From Austin, Texas, the two men therefore wanted to find a point of agreement between the acquisition of Twitter and the new European rules on the regulation of social networks. “I agree with everything you said, really, I think we are on the same wavelength,” assured the billionaire facing the European commissioner.
Mastodon gets back into the race
Brussels reassured, but Brussels foreseeing. Because Elon Musk risks not respecting his commitments, like his announcement Tuesday evening to want to lift the banishment of former American President Donald Trump. It will therefore be necessary to ensure the continuation. So Europe is betting on new platforms, like Mastodon. Created in 2016, in Germany, the social network embodied by a mammoth promises a free network that could never become the possession of a single billionaire. His model is what is called “the fediverse”. In common parlance, this echoes a decentralized network where several servers meet.
This may explain, this Thursday, the arrival of certain European authorities, in particular the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) on the Mastodon social network. A way for the organization to legitimize and ensure its trust in the young social network by creating several platforms: EU Voice and EU Video. “With this launch, we aim to provide alternative social media platforms that put individuals and their rights to privacy and data protection first,” explained European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski. .
By bringing these new “instances” into the world (servers in the mastondantain jardon), the CEPD intends to bring together as many European organizations as possible by means of fairly short texts (squeaks), images and videos or podcasts. But Europe is not really the only one to have been seduced by the freedom of the mammoth social network.
A wave of popularity to master
On Twitter, the takeover of the social network has motivated some Internet users to consider a definitive departure in favor of new platforms. Under the hashtags #LeaveTwitter and #JoinMastodon, the former supporters of the blue bird now prefer to line up behind the mammoth. “I created my Mastodon account in 2017, but I used it very little. That will change,” admits the first. ” L’happy hour for hate speech is about to begin,” adds a second. “So it’s a good time to move on and make a fresh start on the free and open Mastodon microblogging network,” added a third.
Faced with this enthusiasm, Mastodon even saw its number of new users explode, up to 30,000 every day from the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk. The opportunity for Eugen Rochko, the founder of the social network, to recallin a press release, his motivations to initially create “a more resilient global platform without profit incentives”. “What ultimately led me to create Mastodon [en 2016], it was the rumors that Twitter, the platform of which I was a daily user for years at that time, could be sold to another controversial billionaire”, justified Eugen Rochko. Before emphasizing: “And now it has finally happened, and for the same reasons, masses of people come to Mastodon”.
Indeed, victim of its success described as “explosive”, the social network even had to slow down. Because apart from the 2,400 servers operated by individuals and independent organizations, a few “instances” remain managed by Mastodon, which lack “resources”, admits the social network. “We have worked tirelessly to maintain quality of service on mastodon.social and mastodon.online, but you may have noticed issues such as no confirmation emails or delayed data feeds at home,” admits the German social network, which promises to adjust its software in the future.