INTERVIEW: Inside the Commission’s favourite European social network

 Several weeks ago, the European Commission rejigged its website. Instead of directing users to follow it on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, it now directs users to Mastodon, a European platform.

The change is part of a wider European push to move away from US tech.

Mastodon, originally an open-source hobbyist project, was catapulted into the limelight when billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter and began rebranding it, stylistically and ideologically, in 2022.

Up to two million people actively used the platform at the high point of that wave, Mastodon’s Executive Director Felix Hlatky told Euractiv. That’s now down to around a million, he said, adding that “quite clearly” makes it the biggest European alternative to X. (
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