On yesterday's #OnTheMedia story about NPR and PBS leaving Twitter, there was a brief mention of #Mastodon. Here is the relevant excerpt.
The interviewee is Zoƫ Schiffer, Managing Editor at Platformer. I think she's wrong. People figured out email, and the #Fediverse is analogous.
The whole interview is here:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/twitter-takes-on-public-media-on-the-media