'Some Speech Is More Free Than Others:' Is This New Social Networking Platform A Threat To Elon Musk's Twitter?

Elon Musk's Twitter is apparently marking tweets mentioning Mastodon as "sensitive content" – does the microblogging site see it as a threat?

What Happened: On Wednesday, Brian Krebs, a renowned web security blogger, shared an experience of another Twitter user saying various tweets mentioning Mastodon, which are "perfectly harmless." are being flagged as having "sensitive content."

See Also: Twitter Shadowbanning You? Elon Musk Says Software Update Coming To 'Clearly Know' Account Status

Someone I've followed for a while @joeuchill shared his experience trying to post various tweets mentioning M@stodon. All were perfectly harmless but most were flagged as having "sensitive content" like nudity, violence or gore. Lots of infosec peeps on M@stodon reporting same. pic.twitter.com/VexjYM0vHY

— briankrebs (@briankrebs) December 14, 2022

He further stated, "I guess in Elon Musk's eye, Mastodon is a threat, and some speech is more free than others."

Why It's Important: Musk acquired Twitter in a highly-publicized deal. As the social media platform continues to roll out turbulent changes, many users planned to shift to other platforms. According to the Bot Sentinel report, between Oct. 27 and Nov. 1, 877,000 accounts were deactivated and 497,000 were suspended. 

As a result, Twitter alternatives like Mastodon have been in the spotlight. 

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