Eugen Rochko began developing Mastodon shortly after leaving university in 2016. He was a fan of Twitter but wanted to create a platform not controlled by any single company or person, reasoning that online communication is too important to be at the whim of commercial interests or CEOs. He believed that the lack of profit motive and canny design could discourage harassment and abuse, and provide users more control. People can join a server that matches their interests and community standards, but also connect with users on other servers, or block all content from a particular server completely.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-man-behind-mastodon-eugen-rochko-built-it-for-this-moment/
