I don’t particularly buy this idea since Mastodon has already existed for several years - and in that time, all the major social media players have only increas

I don’t particularly buy this idea since Mastodon has already existed for several years - and in that time, all the major social media players have only increased their market share. As far as free speech platforms go you have things like Gab, Voat, etc which prioritize free speech in name. While that may be commendable as a value, the core audience they attract in the beginning is inevitably too extreme for the platform to go mainstream. By the time Reddit replaced Digg, Digg was already losing users routinely. I don’t think any of the current social media players are in that position just yet.