Mastodon: What is the social network hailed as a Twitter alternative?

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Twitter logo at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California, U.S. October 28, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

BERLIN (Reuters) - With Twitter in disarray since the world's richest person took control of it last week, Mastodon, a decentralised, open alternative from privacy-obsessed Germany, has seen a flood of new users.

"The bird is free," tweeted Tesla mogul Elon Musk when he completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. But many free-speech advocates reacted with dismay to the prospect of the world's "town square" being controlled by one person and started looking for other options.