“Based on the screenshots I have seen, it absolutely is based on Mastodon,” Eugen Rochko, founder and lead developer of Mastodon told Motherboard in an email. He pointed to one screenshot of Truth Social’s error message, which is using the default Mastodon elephant mascot.

“Well that looks familiar,” the Mastodon Twitter account tweeted in response to Daily Dot reporter Mikael Thalen posting a screenshot of a Truth Social account he managed to register in Donald Trump’s name. Rochko told Motherboard this Truth Social screenshot “looks exactly like the Mastodon UI with the light theme.”…

Mastodon is a piece of open-source software that people can use to create their own social networks. The platform has a timeline style similar to Twitter. Whereas some people have moved to Mastodon for a social network experience away from more established, Big Tech companies, Neo-Nazis and other extremists have also used the platform.