Twitter rival Mastodon rejects several offers from US investors

Mastodon, the decentralized microblogging social network which rivals Twitter, has rejected more than five investment offers from US venture capital firms in recent months in an effort to maintain its commitment to remain a non-profit platform.

Eugene Rochkothe German software developer who founded Mastodon in 2016has acknowledged to ‘Financial Times’ that he had received offers from investors based in the United States to inject “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in the support of the product, after its rapid growth due to the arrival of users from Twitter after the purchase of the social network by Elon Musk.

However, Rochko has argued that maintaining the status of a non-profit network was “untouchable”, adding that Mastodon’s independence and choice of moderation styles on its servers were part of its appeal.

“Mastodon is not going to become everything you hate about Twitter,” Rochko said. “The fact that it can be sold to a controversial billionaire, the fact that it can be closed, bankrupt, etc. It’s the paradigm difference [entre las plataformas]”, he added.

Rochko is the sole shareholder of Mastodon and, according to his 2021 annual report, he assigned himself a salary of 2,400 euros a month last year, a figure that he has explained has since increased by 500 euros.

In this way, Mastodon will continue to rely on donations to finance the platform. The site has more than 8,500 patrons on Patreon.