“Social media should be built on protocols, not platforms,” Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko said in an interview on TechCrunch's Equity podcast. “And people should be able to freely choose and move between different platforms.”
Rochko is here arguing for a more decentralized approach to social media, one that gives users more control over their data and digital lives, including the kind of content they want to put up with. I am doing it. Recently, he spoke out about changes to Meta's controversial content moderation policy, including adjustments to the type of content Meta allows on its platform in the name of free speech. For Rochko, much of it is actually hate speech.
Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan interviews Rochko about what these changes mean for users and how decentralized social media platforms like Mastodon are performing against mainstream giants like Meta and X. We sought to see if we could provide a possible alternative.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about what's next.
Mastodon chooses to become a non-profit organization in Europe. The challenges of implementing interoperability with platforms like Threads and TikTok (a “go dark” is planned for the US over the weekend), and the importance of user choice. What other decentralized platforms should we look at? (Hint: Also includes Pixelfed.)
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all casts. You can also follow stocks × and threads (@EquityPod). For a transcript of the entire episode, if you prefer reading to listening, check out the full episode archive here.