Mastodon gives news orgs independent control of their social media platform. The problem heretofore has been getting users to switch, a problem that has been increasingly solved by the aforementioned spates of jackassery. If things keep going the way they have been in recent weeks, news orgs should send Twitter a gift basket as thanks for their independence.

The New York Times can run its own instance with each of their reporters being @nytimes.social, which in theory can’t be spoofed because the they own that domain. News orgs could also independently decide if and how to monetize their respective instances.

I am not entirely surprised that many of the major news sites published guides on Mastodon because, even before the most recent spates of jackassery, I felt like news orgs might find Mastodon appealing specifically because it’s federated.