Mastodon is a **free, open-source social network server** based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones. On Mastodon, users can publish anything they want: links, pictures, text, and video. All Mastodon servers are interoperable as a federated network (users on one server can seamlessly communicate with users from another one, including non-Mastodon software that implements ActivityPub!)
**No vendor lock-in: Fully interoperable with any conforming platform** - It doesn't have to be Mastodon; whatever implements ActivityPub is part of the social network! [Learn more](https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/06/why-activitypub-is-the-future/)
**Real-time, chronological timeline updates** - updates of people you're following appear in real-time in the UI via WebSockets. There's a firehose view as well!
**Media attachments like images and short videos** - upload and view images and WebM/MP4 videos attached to the updates. Videos with no audio track are treated like GIFs; normal videos loop continuously!
**Safety and moderation tools** - Mastodon includes private posts, locked accounts, phrase filtering, muting, blocking, and all sorts of other features, along with a reporting and moderation system. [Learn more](https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/07/cage-the-mastodon/)
**OAuth2 and a straightforward REST API** - Mastodon acts as an OAuth2 provider, so 3rd party apps can use the REST and Streaming APIs. This results in a rich app ecosystem with a lot of choices!
The repository includes deployment configurations for **Docker and docker-compose** as well as specific platforms like **Heroku**, and **Scalingo**. For Helm charts, reference the [mastodon/chart repository](https://github.com/mastodon/chart). The [**standalone** installation guide](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/install/) is available in the documentation.
