Mastodon, the decentralized social media platform that many are touting as a Twitter alternative, saw rapid user growth, from about 300,000 active users to 2.5 million between October and November, its CEO, founder and lead developer said in a blog post Mastodon Yevhen Rochko.

Elon Musk bought and officially took over Twitter at the end of October, meaning that a huge jump in Mastodon’s user base almost immediately followed the billionaire’s deal.

In the message, Rochko mentions the blocking of journalists and the @ElonJet account (which tracked the location of Musk’s plane), as well as the ban of @joinmastodon itself and users who post links to Mastodon.

It’s a stark reminder that centralized platforms can impose arbitrary and unfair restrictions on what you can or can’t say. At Mastodon, we believe that there should be no middleman between you and your audience, and that journalists and government agencies should not rely on a private platform to communicate with the public,” writes Rochko.

Later, following the example of Mastodon, other social networks also wanted to block links on Twitter: Facebook, Instagram, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post faced the ban. Users will no longer be able to add links to their profiles on other social networks to their Twitter bios, nor will they be able to send tweets urging people to switch to their Instagram or Facebook accounts. Later, the message about the update disappeared from the official Twitter page, and Musk apologized and launched a poll about his possible dismissal from the position of CEO of the company. But it seems that, faced with an unexpected result, the entrepreneur is looking for ways and will continue to manage his favorite toy.

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Earlier, as part of the decentralized communications project dComms from the Canadian organization eQualitie, 8 local Mastodon servers were deployed in Ukraine – from Kyiv to Odesa. The full list can be found here.

In Mastodon, you can post texts with a limit of 500 characters per post; it is possible to add an image, video or audio file. Hashtags are encouraged to help people find posts, and there are apps for iOS and Android devices. (There’s also a Mastodon beginner’s guide and site with tons of tips). However, the site is not the only alternative, there are also Post, Hive, Discord, Tumblr, Reddit. Here is a complete list of available and Twitter-like social networks:

8 social networks — alternatives to Twitter (for those who don’t like Elon Musk?)