Summary

  • Mastodon is now shifting to a nonprofit model, stepping away from its founder Eugen Rochko’s sole control, and embracing its original vision of decentralization.
  • The platform, founded in 2016, was built to give users more control over their social experience, from customizing timelines to curating feeds.
  • Rochko is stepping down as CEO to focus on product strategy, fulfilling his promise to keep Mastodon free from the control of one person.



When Elon Musk took over Twitter and rebranded it as X, a lot of users jumped ship. Mastodon, a decentralized social network, quickly gained traction as a go-to alternative, with over 30,000 new users signing up in just one day after the news broke. Even with this surge, the platform seemed to revolve around its mysterious creator, Eugen Rochko, who was both its owner and developer. But now, Mastodon is making a big move to fully embrace its founder’s original idea by switching to a nonprofit model.

In a blog post, Mastodon revealed it’s setting up a new nonprofit in Europe and plans to hand over key parts of the platform to it over the next six months (via The Verge). This is a clear break from the usual model where one person holds all the power, like we see with Twitter or Facebook.

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Mastodon was founded in 2016 by Eugen Rochko, its current CEO, with the idea of giving users more control over their online social lives. The platform was built around letting people customize their timelines, connect with different communities, and run their own social spaces.

Seeing the dangers of centralized platforms controlled by a single company, Rochko stepped in as the leader with a strong focus on decentralization. His main goal has always been to give Mastodon users real power to shape the platform, from deciding how content is moderated to curating their own feeds.


Keeping Mastodon free from the control of a ‘single wealthy individual’

As Mastodon continues to grow, Rochko is finally making good on his promise to keep it from being controlled by any one person. He’s stepping down as CEO and focusing more on product strategy. The platform, based in Germany, also lost its nonprofit status last year, which makes this shift even more crucial.



The organization is also keeping servers like mastodon.social and mastodon.online up and running as key entry points for users to connect with the broader ActivityPub network. With over 835,000 monthly active users spread across thousands of independent servers, Mastodon’s community is thriving.

The transition kicks off with a careful look at the best legal frameworks and locations in Europe to set up the new nonprofit. Once the right spot is chosen, Mastodon will officially transfer ownership of key platform parts to the new organization. At the same time, the platform will evaluate the best legal and operational models to make sure Mastodon stays sustainable and continues to grow.