What They Needed #
In 2017 , a group of people were tired of the bargain that social media offered: use our platform for free, and we’ll surveil you, manipulate your attention, and sell access to your eyeballs.
They didn’t want to quit social media. They wanted to own it.
What They Built #
They created Social.coop —a Mastodon instance run as a democratic cooperative.
Mastodon is open source software that works like Twitter, but with a crucial difference: anyone can run their own server, and servers can connect to each other through a protocol called ActivityPub . There’s no central company controlling everything.
Social.coop took this further. They structured their Mastodon server as a formal cooperative:
- Members pay dues (sliding scale, typically £1-10/month )
- Members vote on how the community is run
- Members elect a steering committee
- Decisions are made through democratic processes using Loomio (another open source tool)
No investors. No ads. No algorithm optimizing for engagement. Just people who want to talk to each other, governing their own space.
What Happened #
Social.coop has been running since 2017—an eternity in social media terms.
What members say:
“I forgot social media could feel good.”
“The timeline shows posts in chronological order. That’s it. No algorithm trying to make me angry.”
“When there’s a policy question, we actually discuss it and vote. I’ve never had a say in how a platform treats me before.”
The community has navigated real challenges together: moderation policies, server costs, how to handle growth. Each decision was made democratically, with the people affected having a voice.
What They Learned #
Governance matters as much as technology. Mastodon is just software. What makes Social.coop different is the cooperative structure wrapped around it. The technology enables community ownership; the governance makes it real.
Small can be good. Social.coop isn’t trying to compete with Twitter’s scale. A few thousand members who actually govern their space together is the point, not a limitation. Human-scale communities can make decisions that planet-scale platforms never could.
Federation means you’re not alone. Because Mastodon servers connect to each other, Social.coop members can follow and interact with people on thousands of other servers. You get the benefits of a small, well-governed community and connection to a broader network.
Sustainability comes from members, not growth. With no investors demanding returns, Social.coop doesn’t need to grow. It needs to serve its members. That changes everything about how decisions get made.
What This Means for You #
If you’re part of a community—a nonprofit, a neighborhood group, a professional association, a movement—you can run your own social space.
The tools are free and open source:
- Mastodon for Twitter-like social networking
- Loomio for democratic decision-making
- Open Collective for transparent finances
You don’t have to accept the terms that commercial social media offers. You can write your own.
Learn more: social.coop
The question isn’t whether social media is good or bad. It’s: who owns the space where you gather? Social.coop answered that question differently.