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Columnist Technology

How I found a new home online at Mastodon, after giving up on Twitter

More like a village than a city, Mastodon has less cruelty and bad-faith debates than Twitter, in my experience Could it be a social media platform to trust, asks Annalee Newitz

By Annalee Newitz

12 April 2023

2KEHETN The Twitter and Mastodon app logos are seen in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland on 12 November, 2022. Mastodon is a decentralized, open-sourc

Jaap Arriens/Alamy

IT HAS been nearly six months since Twitter’s transformation from iconic social media platform into the eccentric personal project of tech billionaire Elon Musk. I abandoned my account last November, save for work announcements – I didn’t want to stick around and watch the place fall apart. Still, I craved a digital hangout where I could connect with friends and colleagues, test out my half-baked ideas and look at cute pictures of capybaras.

I tried out several platforms, from newcomers like Post to the well-established TikTok, and nothing felt right. How do you know when you have found an online …

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