It is rare that Watson launches a new form of journalistic presentation. Today is such a day and you can be “up close”. In terms of content, it is about something very nice: the free internet is alive. Namely in the form of Mastodon, an independent because decentralized social media service that is continuously growing.
A highly unusual phenomenon was observed at Mastodon over the weekend. The hashtag #JohnMastodon was trending worldwide, the associated user contributions went viral and even eclipsed the World Cup final.
Below we show some of the best and funniest #JohnMastodon toots and explain how a well-known multi-billionaire unwittingly fuels the phenomenon.
What is a costume?
If you’ve been to watson before, or if we can count you among our loyal users, you will too Tweeticle probably know. It’s a relatively new form of journalism (the name of which was coined by a Watson veteran).
Tweeticles can be funny. But there are also serious problems, such as Russia’s illegal war of aggression. And there is always a healthy pinch of black humour.
Mastodon is establishing itself as a sensible alternative to Twitter. And there a post is not called a tweet, but toot. This results in the watson word creation “Toticle”, an editorial compilation of Toots.
Here it is important to remember that Mastodon, unlike commercial social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram or Tiktok no recommendation algorithm. It’s all the more amazing that the #JohnMastodon-Toots spread so quickly.
And that brings us to tech billionaire Elon Musk. The head of Twitter, sliding into authoritarian-fascist tendencies, is doing everything he can to curb the wave of migration towards Mastodon. And unintentionally contributes to that.
In the article, the German software developer also discusses Twitter’s (already lifted) ban on mastodon links and the questionable blocking of journalists. This is a strong reminder that centralized platforms can set arbitrary and unfair limits.
And further: “At Mastodon, we believe that there should be no intermediary between you and your audience and that journalists and government agencies in particular should not rely on a private platform to reach the public.”
#JohnMastodon
Understanding #JohnMastodon needs some context.
The American online medium “Mediaite”, which is unfortunately not really well informed, spread the false information last Friday (December 16, 2022) that the founder of Mastodon was blocked on Twitter.
The column, which has since been corrected, incorrectly referred to John Mastodon. In fact, it was the @JoinMastodon Twitter profile.
Who loved to share his thoughts and opinions
He spent his days on a platform called Twitter
But one day his account was taken away.
John was banished, he didn’t know why
But he refused to let this dark cloud pass him by
He set his sights on finding a solution
And came up with an idea, a revolution.
He would build a new platform, one that was honestly decentralized, open source, with no wear and tear
He called it Mastodon, a platform for everyone
Where everyone’s voice could be high.
What do we learn from this?
The future belongs to the tooicle. If the users of the social media service allow this.
A Mastodon user summed it up:
The lesson here is: please don’t just favorite something if you really liked it; BOOST it so other people can enjoy it too! That’s the only reason I bother to make the biggest social graph on Mastodon – to act as an amplifier. You too!❤️😉
Another user excitedly commented:
Sources
- blog.joinmastodon.org: Twitter suspends Mastodon account, prevents link sharing
- theverge.com: More than two million users have flocked to Mastodon since Elon Musk took over Twitter
Source: Watson
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
