[ujhmi6]

Theoretically, Mastodon is a federated network that exists to enable free speech because of how evil those big corporations such as Twitter and Facebook are.

In reality, Mastodon is just one single network (because who'd want to tweet alone) which is even more tightly moderated than Twitter or Facebook.

[yogthos]

That's flat out wrong. Mastodon has over 2 million active users now, so you're not tweeting alone there, and there is not one single network. Different instances federate with each other, and there are lots of different subgroups that focus on all kinds of topics and interests. The model more akin to Reddit subreddits than Twitter in that regard.