A precocious programmer
Since the takeover of Twitter at the end of October by billionaire Elon Musk, many users have deserted the social network to find refuge with Mastodon, the microblogging software in open-source created in 2016 by the German Eugen Rochko. The 29-year-old programmer welcomes a judged influx ” unprecedented “. From 400,000 in mid-October, the network has grown to more than 1.3 million active “mastonauts” in mid-November.
A time follower of Twitter, Eugen Rochko had quickly deplored his pyramid management. Just graduated in computer science from the University of Jena, in Thuringia, in the former East Germany, he launched, at the age of 24, his own social network, alternative and non-profit, where we posts messages called “squeaks”. With its 4,600 independent servers, Mastodon relies on a decentralized system. Thereby, “there is no longer just one person making a top-down decision. It’s more democraticassures its creator.
An impatient child
Born in Moscow to a middle-class Jewish family, Rochko emigrated to Germany with his parents at the age of 11, with the hope “of a better future, far from Putin’s Russia” in background. As a child, his creative spirit was expressed for a time in drawing. “I gave up because I was too impatient. I was unable to draw a straight line, I only made irregular lines,” he remembers. In Thuringia, he discovers high-speed Internet and lines of code and relegates his pencils and his frustration. “With the programming, the reward was immediate: the changes appeared instantly on my screen. »
A digital exception
During his high school years, he created several websites, including the Artists & Customers virtual art market, which he sold for $2,000. Alongside his studies, he puts his computer skills at the service of companies. Evolving far from the Ivy League (a group of eight prestigious American private universities) and Silicon Valley, it quickly became an exception among the digital giants.
Defender of the open source philosophy, based on collaboration and accessibility, he makes it the cornerstone of Mastodon: “The belief that people should be able to see, study, modify and redistribute the code of the software they use is a political position. The goal is to empower individuals. »
The antithesis of Elon Musk
“Hate speech limits the freedom of expression of others”, slice the one who opposes the philosophy of Elon Musk, supporter of absolute freedom of expression. In 2014, Eugen Rochko was marked by the “GamerGate” controversy, a vast international campaign of online sexist harassment that targeted female developers. He wanted to make Mastodon a “place preserved from this kind of actions”.
While Elon Musk plans to make Twitter certification pay, Eugen Rochko defends a model without advertising or algorithms, funded entirely through a participatory platform.