{"id":22520,"date":"2022-11-28T23:16:32","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T07:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=22520"},"modified":"2022-11-28T23:18:44","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T07:18:44","slug":"twitter-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/twitter-alternatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Elon Begging Us to Look for Twitter Alternatives? The Silver Lining of Twitter&#8217;s Deepening Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether or not you use the service, most of you are probably aware by now that Twitter is going through a tumultuous period following its purchase by Elon Musk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An article in the New York Times with the headline \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/11\/technology\/elon-musk-twitter-takeover.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Two Weeks of Chaos<\/a>\u201d runs through some of the changes that Musk has already instituted. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the new Twitter is the \u201canything goes\u201d approach that has led to the account of Donald Trump being re-activated, along with those of others who had been banned for what Twitter previously considered abusive behavior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Musk\u2019s decision to fire most of the people working on moderation means that there are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2022\/11\/22\/elon-musk-twitter-content-moderations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">few, if any brakes on misinformation<\/a> and hate speech spreading on the platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Against this woeful background, many Twitter users are casting around for an alternative where they can continue their conversations without the growing downsides of staying on Musk\u2019s platform, and a clear favorite is emerging \u2013 Mastodon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Beginning of Twitter\u2019s End?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among other things, Twitter\u2019s state of chaos has resulted in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>a number of major advertisers have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/04\/technology\/twitter-advertisers.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">paused their spending on Twitter<\/a>, worsening the service\u2019s financial situation. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the spread of hate speech on the platform \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/heres-proof-hate-speech-is-more-viral-on-elon-musks-twitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">already noted by researchers<\/a> \u2013 may spur governments, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/the-eus-new-digital-services-act-what-does-it-mean-for-global-privacy\/\">notably in the EU<\/a>, to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blumenthal.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press\/release\/blumenthal-leads-group-of-senate-democrats-urging-ftc-investigation-of-twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">demand more control<\/a> from Musk, with hefty fines if he doesn\u2019t. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Apple and Google may also consider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90815181\/why-apple-and-google-could-be-the-biggest-threat-to-elon-musks-anything-goes-version-of-twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">dropping Twitter from their crucially important app stores<\/a> because of the service\u2019s failure to meet their guidelines.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mastodon\u2019s rise as a viable Twitter alternative.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mastodon was created by the <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/eugen-rochko-mastodon-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">24-year-old Eugen Rochko<\/a>, and first released as open source in 2016. In recent months, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mastodon_(software)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">its growth has accelerated<\/a> as more people have become concerned about how Twitter was likely to develop under its new owner:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Musk\u2019s acquisition became final on 27 October 2022. Mastodon experienced an increase of 70,000 new users from the resultant diaspora on 28 October alone. Daily downloads increased substantially, rising from 3,400 daily downloads on 27 October to 113,400 on 6 November 2022.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Mastodon Is Different from Twitter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although Mastodon shares many features with Twitter, it differs in one crucial respect. It is not a monolithic system, like Twitter, but a network of servers, known as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/joinmastodon.org\/servers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">instances<\/a>\u201c. Each instance is independent, and free to set its own code of conduct, terms of service, moderation rules and privacy policy. That\u2019s in stark contrast to Twitter today, where everything seems entirely at the whim of Musk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The freedom to set per-server rules has led to a wide variety of different local cultures, some catering for professional groups like lawyers, some aimed at geographical groupings, and others based around hobbies or personal interests. Most instances are self-funded or, increasingly, crowdfunded, so there are no commercial pressures that limit what kind of rules are put in place \u2013 and no ads anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As more people have started to explore Mastodon and its instances, some have been surprised to learn that its DMs (direct messages between Mastodon users) are not encrypted end-to-end, only in transit to the server. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/privacy-policy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Mastodon explicitly warns about this<\/a>: \u201cPlease keep in mind that the operators of the server and any receiving server may view such messages, and that recipients may screenshot, copy or otherwise re-share them.\u201d What people are forgetting here is that exactly the same is true about Twitter. As <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/mastodon-how-to-dm-send-messages-twitter-1849759852\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">a post about Mastodon\u2019s DMs on Gizmodo<\/a> put it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media is a very bad place to have sensitive conversations. And while Twitter\u2019s setup seems aimed at convincing people that their DMs are private, that\u2019s obviously not the case. A few weeks ago, an exorbitantly rich man bought access to every DM on that app. He\u2019s free to read them at his own leisure. Those messages don\u2019t belong to you. They belong to him and whoever he chooses to share them with.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another useful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2022\/11\/mastodon-private-and-secure-lets-take-look\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">exploration of Mastodon\u2019s privacy and security<\/a>, on the Electronic Frontier Foundation\u2019s site, pointed out that the key difference with Mastodon is that: \u201cunlike Twitter or Instagram, you have the choice in what server or instance you trust with your communications.\u201d Different instances will take different approaches to privacy and security, allowing users to choose the one that best suits their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A More Open Social Media Ecosystem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The real power of Mastodon as a Twitter alternative stems not just from this choice of different local cultures and privacy protections, but the fact that they can all interoperate. People can follow users on different servers, without needing another account there. Moreover, people can easily move their account from one to another if they decide that they prefer the local rules elsewhere. This interoperability is possible thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/activitypub.rocks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ActivityPub<\/a>, which is an <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ActivityPub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">open, decentralized social networking protocol<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The power of ActivityPub extends well beyond providing interoperability between Mastodon\u2019s instances, to creating a larger \u201cfediverse\u201d \u2013 a portmanteau word formed from \u201cfederation\u201d and \u201cuniverse\u201d. The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fediverse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ActivityPub fediverse of platforms<\/a> already includes a couple of dozen online services beyond Mastodon\u2019s microblogging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/joinpeertube.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">PeerTube<\/a> is a free and decentralized alternative to video platforms like YouTube. It currently has over 600,000 videos published by 150,000 users, viewed over 70 million times. Once more, there are various instances devoted to particular topics \u2013 for example educational videos, ornithology, computers etc. Because Mastodon and PeerTube both support ActivityPub, users of one service can interact with and follow someone on the other without needing to set up separate accounts on both. The same is true for <a href=\"https:\/\/pixelfed.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Pixelfed<\/a>, a fediverse photo sharing service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ActivityPub Has Serious Growth Potential <\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sudden influx of millions of new users of Mastodon \u2013 all of whom can access servers in the ActivityPub fediverse \u2013 is starting to have a knock on effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Tumblr<\/a>, an older social networking site for short-form blogging founded in 2007, plans to <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/11\/21\/tumblr-to-add-support-for-activitypub-the-social-protocol-powering-mastodon-and-other-apps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">add support for ActivityPub<\/a>. Once this is done, users on Mastodon will be able to comment on Tumblr posts and vice versa without needing a separate account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/donmacaskill\/status\/1594945727255699457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">discussions<\/a> about adding ActivityPub to the photo sharing site Flickr. An article on The New Stack suggested that other developers are interested in <a href=\"https:\/\/thenewstack.io\/devs-are-excited-by-activitypub-open-protocol-for-mastodon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">supporting ActivityPub<\/a>, and there are already some new services that have been announced, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/reiver\/greatape\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Great Ape<\/a>, \u201ca free social audio &amp; video social-media platform that can be used via an app\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These fediverse apps currently have tiny numbers of users compared to the mainstream versions. But the interoperability of ActivityPub services means that it is the sum of all the users that counts. The more people who join Mastodon, disillusioned perhaps by Twitter, the stronger the entire fediverse becomes. That, in turn, holds out the exciting prospect of new services being created \u2013 for example fully-fledged rivals to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Twitter\u2019s Loss May Be A Win for Privacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For users, ActivityPub versions of these platforms would have the huge advantage that it would be possible to create many alternative instances for a particular sector, as is already the case for Mastodon. That would introduce a real element of choice \u2013 and of competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since people could move freely between ActivityPub instances, they could start to select on the basis of things important to them \u2013 like privacy. Instances with better privacy protection would attract more users who cared about that. At the moment, that\u2019s simply not possible, since Facebook users can\u2019t migrate to other services without losing their network, and so Facebook is able to exploit personal data without much regard for privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/facebooks-very-bad-no-good-week-what-it-means-for-privacy-and-how-to-make-things-better\/\">PIA blog post<\/a> pointed out last year, once interoperability makes migration easy, the main problems of today\u2019s services \u2013 constant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s=surveillance+advertising\">surveillance<\/a> for the purpose of selling access to personal data via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/real-time-bidding-advertising\/\">real-time bidding<\/a> \u2013 can be avoided. New business models \u2013 based, for example on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s=contextual+advertising\">contextual advertising<\/a> or subscriptions \u2013 can be tried out. That makes watching today\u2019s great Mastodon experiment not just thrilling, but also a cause for celebration and even hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/buy-vpn-online?conversionpoint=twitter_alternatives_mastodon\"><button class=\"bg-btn-1\">Try Private Internet Access<\/button><\/a>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Featured image by <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/@glynmoody\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Mastodon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether or not you use the service, most of you are probably aware by now that Twitter is going through a tumultuous period following its purchase by Elon Musk. An article in the New York Times with the headline \u201cTwo Weeks of Chaos\u201d runs through some of the changes that Musk has already instituted. Perhaps &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/twitter-alternatives\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Is Elon Begging Us to Look for Twitter Alternatives? The Silver Lining of Twitter&#8217;s Deepening Woes&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":22533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2579,1940,1941],"tags":[2753,660,101,2052,1549,200,104,1972,74,2752,2756,1961,2754,2755,1866,105],"class_list":["post-22520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","category-online-privacy","category-social-media","category-surveillance","tag-activitypub","tag-advertising","tag-apple","tag-dsa","tag-elon-musk","tag-eu","tag-facebook","tag-fediverse","tag-google","tag-instances","tag-interoperability","tag-mastodon","tag-peertube","tag-pixelfed","tag-tiktok","tag-twitter"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is Elon Begging Us to Look for Twitter Alternatives? | PIA VPN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Users are looking for Twitter alternative where they can continue their conversations without the growing downsides of Musk&#039;s platform.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/twitter-alternatives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Elon Begging Us to Look for Twitter Alternatives? The Silver Lining of Twitter&#039;s Deepening Woes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Users are looking for Twitter alternative where they can continue their conversations without the growing downsides of Musk&#039;s platform.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/twitter-alternatives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-29T07:16:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-29T07:18:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mastodon-screenshot.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1346\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"838\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Glyn Moody\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/glynmoody\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@buyvpnservice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Glyn Moody\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/twitter-alternatives\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/twitter-alternatives\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Glyn Moody\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/99ba810662cdf92245f61106c0c29775\"},\"headline\":\"Is Elon Begging Us to Look for Twitter Alternatives? 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