Boris MannJul 12, 2023

The Dutch government is now running their own Mastodon server

In translation, it talks about "value-driven alternatives to social media"

The message I'd like to see governments adopt is a little different: "digital communications is a critical part of civil communication and the government should not be running on corporate platforms"

https://social.overheid.nl/@avhuffelen/110700825255524685

Alexandra van Huffelen (@[email protected])

Bijlagen: 1 afbeelding Vandaag lanceren wij onze overheidsserver op Mastodon. In de brief die ik aan de Kamer heb gestuurd over 'Digitale gemeenschapsgoederen' op 22 juni, heb ik aangegeven dat ik twee waardengedreven alternatieven voor social media ondersteun. Een van deze alternatieven is een 'eigen' Mastodon-server die door overheidsorganisaties gebruikt worden. Hiermee zetten we weer een stap in onze Werkagenda Waardengedreven Digitaliseren. Algemene informatie over ons ministerie: @minbzk

Mastodon
Show threadLaurens 🐐

@boris I work for a Dutch government agency and I have posted a message about the launch of 'our' Mastodon server on our intranet.

I mentioned something similar to what you've posted in that message. We shouldn't rely on corporate platforms to provide us with means of civil communication, however convenient to use they are. Their owners are too much of a liability.

Social media should always be secondary to official websites, although a Mastodon server lies somewhere in between.

Jul 13, 2023 at 7:52amWeb
Show threadBoris MannJul 13, 2023

@ElBeeToots yeah I think it’s best thought of as an official website.

The in between step is to verify a Mastodon profile with a rel=me link on the government website, without running a whole server.

Buffer and other social media management tools do support Mastodon posting so this wouldn’t be hard for the government communications staff to use.

Or automate posting from RSS etc