Mastodon, a decentralized social media platform that many use as an alternative to Twitter, saw its user base skyrocket from about 300,000 monthly active users to 2.5 million between October and November, said Mastodon’s CEO, founder and lead developer. Eugen Rochko said in a new blog post. Elon Musk officially took over Twitter at the end of October, meaning that Mastodon’s massive increase in users almost immediately followed Musk’s new ownership.

Rochko’s post also touched on Twitter’s now-reversed ban on sharing links to Mastodon, many journalists, and the @joinmastodon account itself following the still-current ban on @ElonJet. “This is a stark reminder that centralized platforms can impose arbitrary and unfair limits on what you can and can’t say while holding your social chart hostage,” Rochko said. “At Mastodon, we believe that there should be no intermediary between you and your audience and that journalists and government agencies in particular should not rely on a private platform to reach the public.”

However, Rochko sounds confident in Mastodon’s future. “Because we understand that freedom of the press is absolutely essential to a functional democracy, we are excited to see Mastodon grow and become a household name in newsrooms around the world, and we are committed to continuing to improve our software to meet new challenges those come with rapid growth and increasing demand,” he wrote.