WARNING: Phishing Attacks, HTML markup to hide urls, are now in Mastodon.
While Mastodon does not have markup to allow hiding urls, they share API with "friendica" and friendica ALLOW HIDING URLS.
And friendica accounts can post on Mastodon.
I have asked for a solution, none is forthcoming.
Click NO LINKS that come friendica. Be wary of links on Mastodon, as if Mastodon were "email" - without any protections.
Multiple reports of other fediverse branches allow hiding urls. No Clicking links
Anytime I see a link in social media I might want to visit, I copy it then paste it into the Trace URL form at https://wheregoes.com. Then I copy and paste the final link in the trace, sometimes after making some obvious modifications to it, into the browser to visit the link. I usually use Tor browser for this
It's hassle but it really makes me think twice before deciding to visit a link. It has also been a bit eye opening.
Good luck, everyone. Be careful out there!
Online protection is layer after layer of safety measures, as your apparent risk increases, like John, you add layers.
There is NEVER a good reason to hide urls.
If you "trust" a site you might skip a layer, like John uses, if he is on johnswebsite.net or mybrothersblog.com mastodon is tens of thousands of websites run by randos, mostly but not all, lovable randos.
Removing ANY protections from Mastodon is a conspiracy of dumb.
Kevin Russell
john r red-horse