Mastodon announces transition to non-profit structure

Decentralized social network organization Mastodon Monday said it plans to create a new non-profit organization in Europe and transfer ownership of the entity responsible for the core Mastodon ecosystem and platform components. This means that one person will not have control over the entire project. The company is trying to differentiate itself from social networks controlled by CEOs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

While the exact details have yet to be finalized, it means Mastodon’s current CEO and creator, Eugen Rochko, will hand over the company’s management bits to the new entity and focus on product strategy.

The organization said that it will continue this arrangement mastodon.social And mastodon.online server, which users can sign up for and join the ActivityPub-based network. Mastodon is present 835,000 monthly active users Spread across thousands of servers.

“When founder Eugene Rochko started work at Mastodon, his focus was on creating the code and conditions for the kind of social media he envisioned. There was a way to end the legal setup, a quick fix to allow him to continue operations. From the beginning, he declared that Mastodon would not be for sale and that it would be free from the control of a single rich man, and he could confirm that because he was the one in control, the sole final decision-maker,” Mastodon said. A blog post.

The company formed last year A US based non-profit to get more funding and donations with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on board. As a side effect, the organization lost its non-profit status in Germany at the same time.

Mastodon relies on donations and sponsorships to operate, while Bluesky, a rival decentralized network, is its main competitor. Raise said A new funding round from investors at a $700 million valuation.

The blog post noted that the new Europe-based non-profit entity will wholly own the for-profit entity Mastodon GmbH. The company is in the process of finalizing where the new organization will be set up.

“We are taking time to select the appropriate jurisdiction and framework in Europe. We will then determine what other (subsidiary) legal framework is needed to support operations and sustainability,” the post said.

“In all, we will focus on establishing appropriate governance and leadership structures that reflect the nature and purpose of Mastodon as a whole and serve the community responsibly.”

Over the past few months, ownership of open source projects has been a recurring news topic. For example, people have questioned its control Certain WordPress community projects By Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress. Mastodon is trying to avoid situations where only one person has decision-making power in today’s new structure.