Woah - German government has got its own Mastodon instance and most of the ministries and many agencies already have accounts.
Verification problem at least partially solved - just need to check the domain is right!
I've also seen newspapers like theatlantic.com set up instances themselves. Looks like verification will be worked out sooner or later.
https://social.bund.de/explore
Explore social.bund.de

Discover users based on their interests

Mastodon hosted on social.bund.de
Unfortunately I mistook fedifinder's output of @theatlantic.com to mean they have an instance. I don't think they have one (yet) unfortunately but this is only a question of time I hope.

If you like Mastodon it'd be great if you supported their development with a modest donation like I've done.

There's no better way to annoy Elon than to bank roll an alternative to Elon

See this tweet for two ways of donating to Mastodon:
https://mstdn.science/@corneliusroemer/109298404704283226

Cornelius Roemer (@[email protected])

If you like what you're seeing here, why not donate a little bit to support Mastodon development? I've just donated a modest $10 myself through Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/mastodon Patreon is also available: https://www.patreon.com/mastodon Mastodon gGmbH is registered as a German non-profit, so if you want to donate substantial amounts, you should in theory be able to get a tax waiver - but first contact someone at Mastodon, e.g. @[email protected] Governance looks solid!

mstdn.science
And look - MIT already has a gated instance. Anyone who's on mastodon.mit.edu is verified to have an MIT email. Neat isn't it?
https://mastodon.mit.edu/
mastodon.mit.edu

An instance for the extended MIT community. Run by volunteers at SIPB, MIT's computer club. NOT run or endorsed by the MIT administration.

Mastodon hosted on mastodon.mit.edu

@corneliusroemer the "instance" you sign up to doesn't stop your mastodon experience.

You're being a fucking pathetic widdle ❄️

Did you tell the world when you weren't accepted to that university and cry about it?

Utterly pathetic...

@Brightdave @corneliusroemer

Brightdave is my first block on Mastodon. #SiffMastodon