In the wake of Elon Musk buying Twitter, he has made a flurry of changes to the popular social media platform. One of the key changes was the payment for Blue tick verification of users. This led to several celebrities losing their Blue tick status because they refused to pay for it.
Twitter has not really been known has a profitable business in the past decade. While its annual revenue grew from $0.3 billion in 2012 to $4.4 billion in 2022, it still registered annual losses because of its bloated operating cost. Majority of its revenue came from advertising and the rest from data licensing.
It wasn't far fetch to expect that Elon Musk would try to increase revenue and reduce cost at Twitter. More than half of Twitter employees lost their jobs as part of Elon's organisational restructure to reduce cost. Twitter Blue became Twitter's new revenue stream, in addition to their existing revenue from advertising and data licensing.
Another key area that Elon Musk made changes to was Twitter's moderation policies. Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, he has reinstated a lot of right wing racist users in the name of free speech. Alot of users have accused Elon Musk of relaxing Twitter's moderation policy.
On the balance, the die hard Twitter fans are still committed to using Twitter, but Twitter did see a big drop in users due to these changes made by Elon Musk. In 2022, The Guardian reported that Twitter was set to lose 32 million users over the next two years. The Guardian attributed most of this to hate speech.
With that said, there has been several reports of Twitter users either threatening or actually leaving Twitter to join Mastodon, a direct competitor of Twitter. To put it in simple words, Mastodon is the decentralised version of Twitter, but is it better?
This article looks at the key differences between Twitter and Mastodon. We hope it provides you with the information you need to decide which microblogging social media platform is best for you. Is it Twitter or Mastodon?
Differences between Twitter and Mastodon
One of the key differences between Mastodon and Twitter is their structure. Mastodon is a decentralized platform, which means that it is made up of many interconnected servers or "instances." Each instance is operated by independent administrators and has its own set of rules and guidelines. This decentralized structure allows for greater user privacy and control, as well as more diverse communities.
Twitter, on the other hand, is a centralized platform, which means that it is operated by a single company and has a single set of rules and guidelines. This can lead to issues with censorship and lack of transparency.
Another difference between Mastodon and Twitter is their approach to advertising. Mastodon does not rely on advertising revenue and does not collect user data for targeted advertising or other commercial purposes. Twitter, on the other hand, relies heavily on advertising revenue and collects user data for targeted advertising.
Mastodon also has a different approach to content moderation. Each instance is responsible for moderating its own content, which can lead to more diverse and nuanced moderation policies. Twitter, on the other hand, has faced criticism for its inconsistent and opaque content moderation policies.
In terms of user experience, Mastodon and Twitter both have their strengths and weaknesses. Mastodon's chronological timeline allows users to see all content from those they follow, rather than having content filtered by an algorithm. Twitter's algorithmic timeline, on the other hand, can help users discover new content and accounts.
Conclusion
Ultimately, whether Mastodon or Twitter is better depends on the user's needs and preferences. Mastodon's decentralized structure, emphasises on privacy and community building, and lack of advertising make it a popular choice for those seeking an alternative to centralized social media platforms. Twitter's larger user base, algorithmic timeline, and ability to reach a wider audience make it a popular choice for businesses and public figures.
