Eugen Rochko, the 29-year-old German software developer who six years ago created Twitter rival Mastodon out of frustration with the U.S. social network, has had quite a month. The chaos of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover in late October has led millions of users to look for an alternative, and Mastodon has provided many with a familiar—though not identical—life raft. The influx of users is fueling Rochko's ambition of Mastodon one day matching Twitter in size, but the founder and CEO is taking a decidedly anti-Musk approach to growing his decentralized platform—forbidding hate speech, banning ads, eschewing revenue, and abdicating hands-on control of the network. He remains Mastodon's sole full-time employee.
Since Musk bought Twitter, Mastodon's active user base has soared from 300,000 to 2.6 million. Donations to the crowdfunded network have more than quadrupled.
