research-article

Flocking to Mastodon: Tracking the Great Twitter Migration

Authors:

Ignacio Castro,

Aravindh Raman,

Nishanth Sastry,

Gareth TysonAuthors Info & Claims

IMC '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM on Internet Measurement Conference

Pages 111 - 123

https://doi.org/10.1145/3618257.3624819

Published: 24 October 2023 Publication History

Abstract

The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk has spurred controversy and uncertainty among Twitter users. The move raised both praise and concerns, particularly regarding Musk's views on free speech. As a result, a large number of Twitter users have looked for alternatives to Twitter. Mastodon, a decentralized micro-blogging social network, has attracted the attention of many users and the general media. In this paper, we analyze the migration of 136,009 users from Twitter to Mastodon. We inspect the impact that this has on the wider Mastodon ecosystem, particularly in terms of user-driven pressure towards centralization. We further explore factors that influence users to migrate, highlighting the effect of users' social networks. Finally, we inspect the behavior of individual users, showing how they utilize both Twitter and Mastodon in parallel. We find a clear difference in the topics discussed on the two platforms. This leads us to build classifiers to explore if migration is predictable. Through feature analysis, we find that the content of tweets as well as the number of URLs, the number of likes, and the length of tweets are effective metrics for the prediction of user migration.

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Cited By

Quian ALópez-García XSoengas-Pérez X(2024)Periodismo y redes sociales alternativas del Fediverso: estudio de la presencia de medios nativos digitales y matriciales en MastodonJournalism and alternative social networks in the Fediverse: a study of the presence of digital native and legacy media on MastodonRevista Latina de Comunicación Social10.4185/rlcs-2025-2338(1-40)Online publication date: 11-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.4185/rlcs-2025-2338
Timpka T(2024)Time for Medicine and Public Health to Leave Platform XJMIR Medical Education10.2196/5381010(e53810-e53810)Online publication date: 24-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/53810
Ghafouri VAlatawi FKarami MSuch JSuarez-Tangil G(2024)Transformer-Based Quantification of the Echo Chamber Effect in Online CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870068:CSCW2(1-27)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687006
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Index Terms

Flocking to Mastodon: Tracking the Great Twitter Migration
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Machine learning
    1. Learning paradigms
      1. Supervised learning
        Supervised learning by classification
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
      1. Social networks

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cover image ACM Conferences

IMC '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM on Internet Measurement Conference

October 2023

746 pages

ISBN:9798400703829

DOI:10.1145/3618257

General Chairs:
Marie-José Montpetit
McGill University, Canada
,
Aris Leivadeas
École de Technologie Supérieure, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Steve Uhlig
Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
,
Mobin Javed
Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan

Copyright © 2023 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 24 October 2023

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IMC '23: ACM Internet Measurement Conference

October 24 - 26, 2023

Montreal QC, Canada

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Overall Acceptance Rate 277 of 1,083 submissions, 26%

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Cited By

Quian ALópez-García XSoengas-Pérez X(2024)Periodismo y redes sociales alternativas del Fediverso: estudio de la presencia de medios nativos digitales y matriciales en MastodonJournalism and alternative social networks in the Fediverse: a study of the presence of digital native and legacy media on MastodonRevista Latina de Comunicación Social10.4185/rlcs-2025-2338(1-40)Online publication date: 11-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.4185/rlcs-2025-2338
Timpka T(2024)Time for Medicine and Public Health to Leave Platform XJMIR Medical Education10.2196/5381010(e53810-e53810)Online publication date: 24-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/53810
Ghafouri VAlatawi FKarami MSuch JSuarez-Tangil G(2024)Transformer-Based Quantification of the Echo Chamber Effect in Online CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870068:CSCW2(1-27)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687006
Bin Zia HHe JCastro ITyson GVallina-Rodríguez NSuarez-Tángil GLevin DPelsser C(2024)Fediverse Migrations: A Study of User Account Portability on the Mastodon Social NetworkProceedings of the 2024 ACM on Internet Measurement Conference10.1145/3646547.3689027(68-75)Online publication date: 4-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3646547.3689027
Balduf LSokoto SAscigil OTyson GScheuermann BKorczyński MCastro IKról MVallina-Rodríguez NSuarez-Tángil GLevin DPelsser C(2024)Looking AT the Blue Skies of BlueskyProceedings of the 2024 ACM on Internet Measurement Conference10.1145/3646547.3688407(76-91)Online publication date: 4-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3646547.3688407
Ba CDileo MGaldeman AZignani MGaito S(2024)Analyzing user migration in blockchain online social networks through network structure and discussion topics of communities on multilayer networksDistributed Ledger Technologies: Research and Practice10.1145/3640020Online publication date: 10-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3640020
Zia HCastro ITyson GSerra ESpezzano F(2024)Mastodoner: A Command-line Tool and Python Library for Public Data Collection from MastodonProceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management10.1145/3627673.3679217(5314-5317)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627673.3679217
Zia HCastro ITyson GSerra ESpezzano F(2024)Collecting and Analyzing Public Data from MastodonProceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management10.1145/3627673.3679093(5551-5553)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627673.3679093
Bono CLa Cava LLuceri LPierri F(2024)An Exploration of Decentralized Moderation on MastodonProceedings of the 16th ACM Web Science Conference10.1145/3614419.3644016(53-58)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3614419.3644016
La Cava LMandaglio DTagarelli A(2024)Polarization in Decentralized Online Social NetworksProceedings of the 16th ACM Web Science Conference10.1145/3614419.3644013(48-52)Online publication date: 21-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3614419.3644013
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