Mastodon announces a shift of platform control to a new European nonprofit entity

Mastodon is transferring its key assets, including its name and copyrights, to a new nonprofit organization in Europe. This strategic move aims to prevent any single individual from having complete control over the project. The nonprofit will oversee essential components of the Mastodon ecosystem, in line with its mission to support online communities free from ads, data exploitation, and corporate dominance.

Despite this shift, mastodon.social and mastodon.online will continue to operate as main public servers, and the federated nature of Mastodon, which allows servers to communicate with each other, will remain unchanged. Users won't notice immediate changes apart from regular updates and planned improvements. Mastodon's European headquarters will remain, with operations managed by Mastodon GmbH, a for-profit company.

Additionally, the existing US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit will continue to serve as a fundraising hub for Mastodon's initiatives. The Fediscovery project, focused on privacy-respecting cross-Fediverse searches, will also proceed as planned.