After Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover, Paul Krugman Opens Mastodon Account: 'As Precaution Against Possible Muskocalypse'

After Elon Musk's Twitter takeover, Nobel laureate and noted economist Paul Krugman said he has opened an account on Mastodon “as a precaution against the possible Muskocalypse.” 

In a series of tweets, Krugman explained why he believes Twitter's usefulness could collapse.

So, I've opened a Mastodon account as a precaution against the possible Muskocalypse on this site: https://t.co/ybVhwQgsyC
Let me talk about motivation, which may be a bit different from other Twitterati 1/

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 6, 2022

Mastodon is a free and open-source social network, which has seen an influx of Twitter users after Musk bought the microblogging platform. It has more than 655,000 users — with over 230,000 having joined last week, a BBC News report noted.

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“I use Twitter in a somewhat restricted way. I don't, for the most part, respond to or even look at replies — too many followers, and too much hate even with content moderation. I do dialogues, when I do, via retweets,” Krugman said in his tweet.

The economist said he uses the site for partly broadcasting, but mostly to follow people who actually know a subject, whether it's energy policy or national security. “Getting information from such people in more or less real-time is extremely valuable,” he said.

Critical Mass: “So a mass influx of crazy people won't directly hurt the way I use Twitter. But I worry about loss of critical mass. As Musk's apparently uncontrollable nastiness and childishness drives away users and advertisers, it's easy to see how Twitter's usefulness could collapse,” Krugman said.

The economist’s account on Mastodon has garnered more than 4,000 followers so far.

“I have no idea what will replace Twitter if and when that happens. But I'm doing what I can to retain an alternative social media foothold,” he said.

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