Ever since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the world’s most popular place for microblogging and breaking news, became a reality back in November, the decentralized alternative Mastodon has seen an immense influx of new users. The rampage Musk unleashed after taking over the wheel at Twitter has prompted a significant amount of passionate Tweeters to turn their backs on the company – be it in the more radical form of deleting their accounts or a milder version by not posting there anymore (as much as before). The latest of Musk’s escapades happened very recently and involved the banning of a whole range of acclaimed journalists who were in some way connected to an account that dared to share flight data of Musk’s private jet. Mind you, Musk is the person who has been waving the „Free speech“ flag with a big mouth and who re-instated former US president Donald Trump on Twitter after his account had been suspended for inciting violence during the riots at the US Capitol on January 6th 2021. I don’t want to go into details here but suffice it to say, I’m more than worried by how things have developed at Twitter HQ. Twitter has become a worse place. While my account there is still active, I’m seriously considering leaving the platform for good if there is no change in leadership. I’ve created a Mastodon account some weeks ago and it has become my main online communication platform very quickly. While it is in some ways different from Twitter, it’s on a basic level quite similar and, unlike some are claiming, not that complicated either.