Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon, has received offers of hundreds of thousands of dollars from private equity firms in Silicon Valley since Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover
Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon, declined more than five investment proposals from US-based investors, as the platform gained popularity following Elon Musk’s turbulent arrival in the social media space. Silicon Valley private equity firms offered to invest “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in the open-source social network, Rochko told the Financial Times.
According to Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon, the open-source social network has experienced a surge in popularity since Elon Musk’s chaotic debut as a social media owner following the $44bn acquisition of Twitter. Rochko reported an increase in monthly active users from 300,000 to 2.5 million after Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Musk has reinstated banned accounts, including Donald Trump’s, and temporarily suspended journalists from publications like the New York Times and Washington Post.
According to the Financial Times, Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko, who is a German software developer, said that the non-profit nature of his platform was “untouchable” and that its independence was a key factor in its appeal to users. Rochko also revealed that Mastodon has over 9,200 patrons on Patreon, a popular online membership service, who collectively contribute more than £28,000 per month to the platform.
Mastodon was pulled into Musk’s contentious moderation approach on Twitter this month when its own Twitter account was suspended for posting a link to the Mastodon account of @elonjet, an account that Musk had suspended for revealing the location of his private jet. Furthermore, Musk temporarily prohibited all links to Mastodon and suspended users who tweeted their Mastodon usernames.
According to a blog post by Rochko, the suspension of Mastodon’s Twitter account was a reminder that centralized platforms can impose unfair restrictions on free speech. Rochko added that Mastodon aims to eliminate the need for a middleman between content creators and their audience, particularly for journalists and government institutions who should not have to rely on a private platform to reach the public.
Mastodon consists of “instances,” which are decentralized servers. While two of the most popular instances are operated by Rochko, there are many smaller ones run by hobbyists. Once a user joins an instance, they can communicate with users on other instances.
