Meta Partners with Chinese Government, Taiwanese Users Flee to Alternative Platforms
Recently, US tech giant Meta has been exposed for collaborating with the Chinese government to censor popular posts in regions such as Taiwan and Hong Kong. Upon the release of this news, many Taiwanese users viewed it as a threat to freedom of speech and opted to leave Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, and migrate to alternative social media platforms.
Among them, a social media platform named “Mastodon” has become a refuge for this wave of “Facebook refugees,” with approximately 20,000 Taiwanese users flooding in. The surge in users also prompted Mastodon’s founder, Eugen Rochko, to personally post:
“Mastodon has seen significant growth in both registrations and activity in Taiwan. A Facebook post previously recommended Mastodon as an alternative to Facebook and Instagram for Taiwanese users, which went viral on Facebook, bringing about 20,000 new users to mastodon.social, g0v.social, m.cmx.im, and several other sites in just two days.”
Image / Mastodon
Post by @[email protected]
View on Mastodon
Further Reading: Beware of Facebook Posts Viewed Over 10,000 Times! You Might Have Been Censored by the “Editor-in-Chief”
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon, which translates to “long-haired elephant” in Chinese, is a free, open-source, decentralized non-profit microblogging community platform developed by German software engineer Eugen Rochko in 2016. At first glance, the Mastodon platform interface resembles the three-column layout of X (formerly known as Twitter), but its operating system differs from traditional social media platforms. Mastodon is not a single website; instead, it adopts a decentralized structure that allows users to interact without relying on a single server.
In simple terms, when users register, they can choose their preferred server and communicate with other users across different servers, similar to how Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or other email accounts operate. Users can send messages to one another even if they are on different servers—just as Gmail users can email Hotmail users—breaking the limitations of traditional social media platforms. This design allows Mastodon to be part of the “Fediverse,” a network ecosystem composed of multiple decentralized social platforms. Therefore, Mastodon users can not only use Mastodon but also engage with other decentralized platforms, enabling them to freely participate in a more diverse social network and expand their social circles.
No Algorithms, No Ads! Balancing User Privacy and Information Transparency
1. Mastodon’s community consists of multiple independently operated servers, each of which can be managed by individuals, groups, or organizations that can set their own community rules and management policies. Some servers allow open registrations, permitting anyone to join, while others have invitation systems or require admin approval.
2. The source code is fully open, allowing anyone to view, modify, or create their own servers or forks, promoting community contribution and transparency.
3. Users can take control of their home timeline, free from algorithms, personal profile promotions, or any advertising interference, receiving posts from friends or followed users in chronological order.
4. Mastodon supports audio, video, and image posts, accessibility descriptions, polls, content warnings, animated avatars, custom emojis, and thumbnail cropping options, making it suitable for publishing artistic works, music, or podcasts.
5. In terms of privacy and management, Mastodon’s private messaging feature sends messages in the form of “@username,” which do not enter the traditional social media platform’s private message inbox, making the platform more transparent while emphasizing decentralized social characteristics.
How to Register on Mastodon?
First, there are two ways to register: the first is to create an account directly on mastodon.social and then enter the server; the second is to filter servers of interest based on region, language, theme, registration speed, etc. After selecting, a personal address will be generated.
Mastodon offers a variety of servers across different regions and themes, allowing users to choose servers of interest for account registration.
Image / Mastodon Official Website
For example, if you choose to register on the German-speaking server “troet.cafe,” your personal address will be “@[email protected],” and users on the troet.cafe server can seamlessly transfer their profiles to other servers without losing followers. Currently, the most popular servers among Taiwanese users include mastodon.social, g0v.social, and m.cmx.im.
Returning to the platform interface, Mastodon’s layout and operations are similar to X, except that “tweets” are now called “toots,” with a character limit of about 500. It includes features such as replies, boosts, favorites, bookmarks, and tags, but does not support quoting posts. Rochko emphasizes that this design primarily encourages more direct communication among users rather than merely chatting with a specific interlocutor.
After entering the selected server, the interface resembles that of X, with features such as replies, boosts, favorites, bookmarks, and tags available.
Image / Mastodon
Musk’s Acquisition of Twitter and the Wave of Social Media Refugees
According to statistics from Mastodon, there are currently over 8,000 active servers, with 920,000 monthly active users. Due to Mastodon’s decentralized and open-source characteristics, it has attracted many advocates concerned about privacy and opposed to the centralized control of large platforms. Particularly after Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022, the first wave of social media refugees surged, with many Twitter users turning to Mastodon in search of alternative platforms, resulting in a spike in user numbers.
Further Reading: Zuckerberg is in Trouble! Meta is Deeply Involved in Two Major Controversies, IG, and WhatsApp Face Monopoly Concerns
This article is a collaborative reprint from Digital Age.
Source: Techcrunch, Mastodon
This article was initially drafted by AI, organized and edited by Su Rouwei.