Mozilla aims to improve Mastodon’s social media platform and prioritizes diversity over neutrality, according to Chief Product Officer Steve Teixeira. The move towards private beta is part of their efforts to address the broken state of social media and shift power away from big tech to better serve people’s needs.
Mastodon’s plan for enhancing the social media experience involves not being neutral, according to Teixeira. He explains that their content moderation approach will differ significantly from other major social media platforms.
Our aim is not to create a platform that claims to be neutral. We hold the belief that the term “neutrality” is frequently used as a justification to enable harassment and harmful behavior targeted towards communities that have historically experienced violence and harassment.
The executive states that their content moderation strategy is based on the principles and values outlined in the Mozilla Manifesto, which prioritize human dignity, inclusion, security, individual expression, and collaboration.
We recognize that in the US, individual expression is often regarded as an unconditional right to free speech, even if it results in harm to others. However, we do not support this perspective. We want to emphasize that while we are creating an excellent platform for social interaction, we also have guidelines that dictate how we interact with one another. You are welcome to find an alternative platform if these rules do not align with your preferences.
If you’re interested in trying out Mastodon’s latest social media initiative, you can join the waitlist. This development is particularly noteworthy since Mastodon recently launched a new onboarding process that simplifies the registration process for their service, as long as you’re signing up for the instance controlled by the company.
