Mastodon: what is it and how does the social network in which users decide what is allowed work?

A photo of Mastodon on a mobile. Barbara Ortutay (AP)

The chaos caused after the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk has triggered the emigration of users to Mastodon, which last Sunday exceeded two million active monthly users.

"The future of social media doesn't have to belong to a billionaire, it can be in the hands of its users," Mastodon tweeted.

Among the main differences of this platform with Twitter is content moderation, in which the users themselves set the rules and play a fundamental role.

How does mastdon work?

"Mastodon is not just a website like Twitter or Facebook, it is a network of thousands of communities operated by different organizations and individuals that provide a seamless experience on social networks," say its creators.

It is a decentralized and open source application in which users are grouped into communities or "instances" of multiple themes and characteristics: from those related to technology, games, activism or art to those of trans people and defenders of privacy or freedom of expression.

After downloading the application, it is possible to choose which instance to be part of.

There is also a website that allows you to search for communities based on language and number of users.

When doing a search, it is possible to find instances “for all who pursue journalistic ethics”, “horror-themed for all mutants”, or “for geeks of all stripes”.

Once inside an instance, the

's operation and interface are quite similar to Twitter.

It is possible to follow other users, reply to posts, share them or mark them as favorites.

However, there are also some differences: messages on Mastodon can have up to 500 characters, compared to 280 on Twitter.

03:34

Video analysis |

Why is Twitter still running after thousands of layoffs?

Twitter in the App Store displayed on a phone screen and the Twitter logo on a background screen, on November 22, 2022. Photo: Jakub Porzycki |

Video: EPV

How is content moderation done?

Knowing how Mastodon works is important to understand how content moderation is done.

Each instance has its own rules and moderation team.

"In theory, there are as many legal conditions as there are instances, since each one has its servers, its administrators and, therefore, its rules," explains Fernando Suárez, president of the General Council of Professional Colleges in Computer Engineering.

That is, "the moderators are the users themselves, but within their own instance."

Therefore, one type of speech may be allowed on one server, but not on a different one.

If someone disregards the rules of an instance, administrators could mute them (hide their account from other users on that server) or kick them out.

Mastodon's unstoppable growth has been accompanied by some failures in moderation.

"In 13 years on Twitter they have never removed a post from me, and in three weeks on Mastodon they have already removed something for racism and sexism," says a user on Twitter.

The retired tweet was as follows: “For the past few years I have been reading almost exclusively books by non-male, non-white, non-straight authors (or some combination of them) and have loved it, but now I'm thinking I need to get back to the books. heterosexual white authors to study the psychology of wealthy white men who have power over all of us.”

This user posted this message on mastodon.social, a generalist instance managed by Eugen Rothko, the original developer of Mastodon, and a small team of colleagues.

From Mastodon they have recognized that this publication was deleted by mistake: "Recently, we hired more moderators and the publication in question was falsely interpreted as implying something that it was not."

Rothko announced a week ago that he had hired content moderators for his instance, but every case is different and many lack the resources to pay moderators.

Is it possible to guarantee the absence of racist or homophobic messages on Mastodon?

“As each of the instances is self-managed, what is done in an instance is what those who set it up want,” says Fernando Muñoz, a partner at Grupo Raíz Digital, an agency specializing in digital content moderation.

In theory, all Mastodon servers commit to demonstrating “active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia”.

"Users must have the confidence that they are joining a safe space, free from white supremacy, anti-Semitism and transphobia from other platforms," ​​they explain from Mastodon.

Mastodon has just passed over 2 million active monthly users, a new record!

People are voting with their feet.

The future of social media doesn't have to belong to a billionaire, it can be in the hands of its users.

— Mastodon (@joinmastodon) November 20, 2022

But, if the moderators are the users themselves, could it happen that a group of racist people create an instance and allow hate messages or hoaxes to spread on it?

"Power could, but it would contravene the very rules of creating Mastodon instances," Muñoz replies.

This problem is not new.

Gab, a far-right social network known as a meeting space for white supremacists, became the largest instance of Mastodon in 2019, according to the

portal .

Mastodon issued a statement criticizing Gab's use of the platform and saying it would do everything in its power to isolate this instance.

“It was not a welcome move on our part;

however, the license we release our

under allows anyone to use it however they see fit, as long as you keep the same license and make your modifications public,” he stated.

How can other instances act against this type of content?

“Mastodon is a technology, like forums or email, that anyone can create to communicate any ideas they want, even harmful or hateful ones,” says Kit Walsh, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the leading non-profit organizations dedicated to defending civil liberties in the digital world.

As he points out, "there is not a single party that controls the use of technology and can impose content restrictions, but each forum or email server will have administrators who control that particular community."

If there's a problematic instance, administrators of other communities might block it so their users can't see its content and interact with it.

“This type of server lockdown is very common and is part of how each node [or instance] sets boundaries to protect its users,” Walsh says.

There are those who share information about problematic instances “using the hashtag #fediblock and explain why they should not be trusted”.

When searching for this

on Mastodon, some users report instances of “insults and racism” or “spreading malicious content”.

The fact that some communities can block others, according to Muñoz, could cause, for example, several instances with fascist content to interact with each other but not with the rest, "thus increasing the filter bubble."

Walsh stresses that some servers take a cautious approach, only accepting communications from a "whitelist" of instances they know to trust.

The ideal, according to the EFF, would be to find an instance in which you agree with the moderation policies.

The user can change at any time to another that fits more with her preferences or has a more active moderation.

You can follow