The rejection of breaking news and other journalistic content on Mastodon

Twitter had been the place to go for breaking news and live reports and reactions of events, incidents, accidents, and pretty much anything else of interest. It’s heaven for news junkies, reporters, and anyone interested with finding out what’s happening. Mastodon hasn’t been it, isn’t it, and most people who have been here for a while don’t want it to be it.

On the other hand, it’s a federated network in which anything and everything can be accommodated. Some server admins and members will block other servers that hosts content they find objectionable simply out of preference, others would love to have such content hosted or shared to theirs.

Mastodon may have been around for six years but it hasn’t gone anywhere near the maturity phase involving massive influx of people with varying expectations like what’s happening now, so a lot of the existing members are trying to protect and defend the Mastodon they know.

Twitter’s own transformation may or may not end up depriving the public of that real time news update so it’s only natural it’s what people are looking for when they seek a replacement. The federated nature of Mastodon shouldn’t be a hindrance to that. 

Server admins who share the same views could even advertise that as their primary selling point. Right now it’s already happening with journa.host and newsie.social but some server admins are blocking journa.host for insisting on taking the standard approach they’re used to on Twitter. So anyone who want to connect to anyone on that server must make sure they’re not on a server that blocks it.

This can make things seem more complicated than they ought to be, but also means it can still work for those who want it and not for those who don’t, at the same time.