Mastodon struggles to keep up with recent flood of Twitter defectors

Mastodon, an open-source social network that markets itself as an alternative to Twitter Inc., has seen a surge in new sign-ups in recent days, overwhelming the site and its founder as the tiny operation struggles to keep up.

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 27, Mastodon has drawn 489,003 new users, bringing total monthly active users to more than 1 million, founder, lead developer and Chief Executive Officer Eugen Rochko said on his own Mastodon account Monday. That’s a tiny fraction compared to Twitter’s 238 million daily active users. But Musk’s purchase has seemingly been the incentive the German non-profit has been waiting for since its founding in 2016.