Post #3310923

2026-06-13 16:51 UTC

@decisaias@fe.disroot.org @_elena@mastodon.social You're moving goal-posts here. You originally said that the company is a "for-profit" and not "non-profit", referring to the structure, hinting on Mastodon GmbH doing PR-work with the "non-profit" talk. When I pointed that it used to be until the status was revoked*, you claimed that this was due to the operating criteria. It's not: its due to Germany removing software projects from eligibility. They couldn't have done anything differently.

Replies (1)

@decisaias@fe.disroot.org 2026-06-13 17:16

@iju@mastodon.social Yes, the tax office revoked its nonprofit status, just as it had originally granted it. The criteria were not met, so Mastodon is now a regular for-profit company. And yes, the fact that Mastodon continued to present itself as a nonprofit LLC for months after it had long since ceased to be one legally is another matter entirely. I wouldn’t call that PR, though; rather, it was stated everywhere in the Mastodon software. Wanting to make money isn’t a bad thing; it’s a capitalist necessity that ensures a project’s long-term viability. In the U.S., there is a legal structure that accommodates both of these goals, and Bluesky, for example, operates under this structure. These are companies that pursue a nonprofit mission but are profit-oriented. This legal structure does not exist in Germany, and it is urgently needed—not just for this project, but for all Fediverse projects where money is always an issue. Making money isn’t a bad thing. And to portray it as entirely negative, while your own projects have their own “skeletons in the closet,” is, at best, a PR stunt. @_elena@mastodon.social

Open ##3310924