Background

Mastodon is a free and open-source social network for decentralized microblogging within the ActivityPub protocol and was first launched by Eugen Rochko in 2016. While Mastodon does have some discovery and recommendation features, its design places emphasis on chronological feeds, user choice, and community norms rather than engagement-driven algorithms or targeted advertising.

Community-driven instances

The platform is composed of independently-run servers called “instances.” Mastodon allows communities and server moderators to decide what kind of environment they want in their instance (e.g. banning certain topics). This can make moderation more flexible and personalized than on large centralized social medias, though it can also make the experience less uniform throughout.

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Instances are groups users can join or even run on their own, and they are often interest-specific and community driven. This includes profession, language, geography, affinity, identity and values.

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Media-centered servers exist, and journalists can join these while still interacting with the fediverse at large. Some popular media-related servers on Mastodon are Journa.host and Newsie.

Flipboard is also a company with a large presence on the fediverse and Mastodon. In addition to hosting many automated @flipboard.com accounts that mirror content from publications and journalists, Flipboard also allows users to join its Mastodon server and follow that content through accounts such as [email protected].

There are also discovery tools that help users explore these different fediverse instances and accounts by organizing them around topics or interests, making it easier to find relevant content across the network. Take a look at our further resources page for more information.

Algorithm

Mastodon’s algorithm is chronologically ordered. The accounts, hashtags, and communities you follow will appear in your feed as they are posted. This visibility also depends on your server and whether posts are public, unlisted, or followers-only. This type of algorithm differs from mainstream social media that often is predictive or recommendation-based, pushing content that the platform thinks you will like.

A chronologically ordered algorithm can be a double-edged sword. Discovery can be more difficult because posts are not ranked and pushed to the top of a personalized feed in the same way (though Mastodon does offer hashtags, trends, and discovery features). Building a functioning social feed then becomes more time-consuming because users must choose the right server, actively find and follow relevant accounts and hashtags, engage with others, and sustain their own “algorithm” through follows, mutes, blocks, hashtags, and server choice.

On the other hand, this algorithm removes the possibility of being shadow-banned. Journalists can take advantage of this by observing what time of day their posts are most engaged with, posting consistently but intentionally.

Audience

As of May 2026, Mastodon has about 749K active monthly users on 8.1K servers. Because of the instance structure, audiences are found less through general broadcasting to the fediverse but within smaller, niche communities. Posts can still circulate widely across the fediverse through boosts, hashtags, and the broader federation.

A notable spike in new Mastodon users occurred after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in October 2022. Journalists were among many who moved out of Twitter, especially those interested in maintaining professional networks outside corporate platforms.

Because Mastodon’s onboarding process is more involved, its consistently active users may skew towards people with technical knowledge and a willingness to curate their own feeds. This makes Mastodon less useful for broad public reach but valuable for targeting and connecting with a smaller, more specialized audience.

Mastodon still offers a trending section for exploration. This includes posts with many boosts or popular hashtags of the day. Again, this can feature is moderated by server.

Overall, Mastodon may be less effective for quick viral reach and more effective for sustained relationship-building. The audience is generally more community-focused and values-driven than on platforms optimized for scale and engagement metrics.