(Paris) Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, some users, unhappy or worried about the measures announced by his new boss, have decided to migrate to other platforms.
Posted at 1:10 p.m.
From outrage over the massive layoff plan within the group to fears of a surge of extremist rhetoric, to opposition to the paid subscription model wanted by Mr. Musk, the grounds for recrimination are numerous.
Where are the disappointed Twitterers fleeing? What is the extent of their exodus?
Mastodon, the “not for sale” network
Unknown to the general public a few days ago, Mastodon is experiencing a peak in popularity among Internet users concerned about the future of Twitter.
Created in 2016 by the German developer Eugen Rochko, the site presents itself as “a free and open code decentralized social network” without any advertising.
Concretely, it allows each user to join, according to his centers of interest, the community of his choice, this one establishing its own rules.
Mastodon, which prides itself on being “not for sale”, therefore consists of a network of thousands of independent servers, also called instances. Members can interact provided that the moderation rules of their respective servers are compatible.
On his personal account, Rochko says Mastodon reached more than 1 million monthly active users on Monday thanks to the addition of 1,124 servers and nearly 490,000 new users since October 27, when Twitter took over. by Elon Musk.
Several users tempted by the experience, however, say they are put off by the platform’s not very intuitive aspect, highlighting in particular the difficulty of creating an account.
Others regret that content moderation is left to the sole discretion of group administrators, pointing out the risk of arbitrary decisions.
In development or established
Other potentially attractive platforms for those who want to leave Twitter are still in the development phase.
This is the case of Bluesky, the new project of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, which claimed at the end of October the registration of 30,000 people on the waiting list in 48 hours, or of Cohost, which promises that the personal data of its users will never be sold.
Already established platforms, such as the microblogging site Tumblr or the audio chat application Clubhouse, have experienced a resurgence in popularity in online discussions.
A few other young shoots are also arousing the curiosity of Internet users, including the Counter Social and Tribel Social networks.
Networks like Gab, Parler or Truth Social, the platform launched by Donald Trump, presented themselves as conservative alternatives to Twitter even before its takeover by Elon Musk. They probably also hope to recover users.
A still limited effect
For the time being, there is no indication that these alternatives to Twitter are able to compete, let alone overtake, the blue bird network, which had nearly 238 million active daily users at the end of June.
In a tweet published overnight from Monday to Tuesday, Elon Musk even assured that “the number of Twitter users has increased considerably around the world since the announcement of the takeover agreement” without providing figures.
“And these are the early days,” continued the billionaire entrepreneur. “As Twitter is going to become by far the most trusted source of truth, it’s going to be indispensable.”
It remains to be seen whether the most prominent personalities on Twitter (singers, sportsmen, politicians) will continue to be active there or whether they will favor their presence on platforms with a much wider audience such as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. .