Chase B
Eugen RochkoThe fact that you can follow the president of the United States (@[email protected]) from your Mastodon account instead of being forced to have an X or Threads account for it is a huge W in my book. Of course our team is fully available to help if they'd want to set up Mastodon on whitehouse.gov. I believe governments should not rely on 3rd party platforms to connect with their constituents.
Infrapink (he/his/him)@Gargron I agree that the White House should host their own Fediverse server.
Mighty Orbot@Infrapink The White House would probably love to set up its own Fediverse instance, but first they’d have to harden it against hackers, ensure it passes accessibility and archival requirements under federal law, and a whole bunch of other stuff that might well involve forking the server software to make sure it’s done right.
There are a LOT of federal laws governing how official websites look and behave, and a lot more bureaucracy to ensure it’s been done: https://digital.gov/resources/checklist-of-requirements-for-federal-digital-services/
fritzoidsthey could ask the German government how they do it. https://social.bund.de/explore
@mighty_orbot @Infrapink
or the publicly funded broadcasting services in Germany. https://ard.social/explore
it's really nice to have those on Mastodon.
or the publicly funded broadcasting services in Germany. https://ard.social/explore
it's really nice to have those on Mastodon.
Baŝto@fritzoids @mighty_orbot @Infrapink There are two actually. ZDF.social is also a thing. Though Deutsche Welle and Deutschlandradio don’t appear to have instances.
Four states also have their own mastodon instances: social.hessen.de bawü.social social.schleswig-holstein.de social.sachsen.de
One even has a peertube instance: tube.bawü.social
Four states also have their own mastodon instances: social.hessen.de bawü.social social.schleswig-holstein.de social.sachsen.de
One even has a peertube instance: tube.bawü.social
Raven667@mighty_orbot @Infrapink There are also a _lot_ of constraints on the ToS that a government entity in the US could enforce, separate from what a private site like Threads or Twitter can have in their ToS, starting from 1st Amendment and working down from there. If it were easy they'd already have done it. Like what happens if someone starts harassing an account on a .gov instance, are they legally permitted to block them? A few EU countries have done it and can attest but they have diff laws.
@raven667 @mighty_orbot That applies to government ministers using non-government social networks already. There was a court case a while ago which ruled that members of Congress aren't allowed to block people on social media (but can mute them).
I don't believe it's a violation of the First Amendment to restrict social.whitehouse.gov to White House residents and employees; doing so would obviate a whole bunch of potential issues.
AutisticMumTo3@AutisticMumTo3 @mighty_orbot Various EU institutions have Fediverse accounts. They're exactly as easy to set up in America as in any EU member state. The problem is that the government isn't willing.
@infosec_jcp 🐈🃏 done differently
Gerbrand van Dieyen@infosec_jcp @Gargron @potus social.whitehouse.gov that prefix is what most European and Dutch institutions also use.
stux⚡️
🇨🇦 Jason Bouwmeester 🍁@Gargron hmmmm doesn't appear followable from the desktop interface, maybe I'm just missing something?
Callalily
Peter Butler@JustAnotherJay @Gargron Your instance is likely not federating with Threads.net
Turr1caN@Gargron prepare for the "i dont want X or Threads in the fediverse" spam
aroom
Simon Zerafa
Nathan A. Stine@simonzerafa @Gargron @[email protected] it's not that they can't, it's that they don't see the point when someone else will do it for them for free.
Urzl@stinerman @simonzerafa @Gargron @[email protected] It's not free to take on part of the deservedly bad reputation of Facebook, it's just without *direct* monetary cost.
Jessie Nabein 
@simonzerafa government procurement and end result support can be tricky sometimes. 
Braw ☕🏳️🌈@simonzerafa they plan to do that! iirc they said it wasn't a technical issue, but a political one
Fingel
Marta Threadbare
kkeller@cygnathreadbare @Gargron @potus you can block the entire Threads instance, or you can move your account to a server that defederates Threads.
@kkeller @Gargron @potus Already did the first, and gonna try to get the second one ready by this weekend (although I already set myself several deadlines and failed them :/) still leaving the biggest and more or less "official" instance federating with the place that welcomes fascists and transphobes is a very bad thing for the entire fedi, a double standard and a sign that their admins don't really care for the safety of their users.
@cygnathreadbare @Gargron @potus perhaps it is bad for mastodon.social. It is *not* bad for the entire Fedi, where the whole point is to federate with servers you want to federate.
Wilfried Klaebe@cygnathreadbare It has been pointed out to @Gargron that by mastodon.social's own policies, threads.net should be defederated.
Alexander@Gargron ich weiß threads ist für viele hier das personifizierte böse aber ich fands schon ziemlich cool dass ich jetzt dem account des amerikanischen präsidenten auf mastodon folgen kann
nice
nice
Steven@Gargron Tell that the german government or european businesses getting themselves stuck in foreign US based cloud systems and softwares.......Instead of supporting Mastodon, Nextcloud, Tuta(nota) and other german, european or maybe not european but privacy friendly alternatives....
Alexia 
Simon Harper@Gargron @[email protected] this is great. Can I follow any threads user now in @ivory on my instance?
@simonharper @[email protected] @ivory Threads users have to opt-in to federation on their side, but anyone who has opted-in, yes, it's just like following any Mastodon user.
Mostly Harmless (Cam Johnson)@Gargron @simonharper @potus @ivory Except the threads user won’t see comments, so it’s mostly one way
katzenberger@Gargron If the first part of your statement actually described a huge win, there wouldn't be any need for the White House to ever follow up on the second part.
This level of submissiveness to Threads is starting to look extremely pathetic.
Steve Haroz (@sharoz on 🐤)I can't figure out how to follow him.
And when I try searching, I see multiple check-marked POTUS accounts, but none are the actual POTUS.
@sharoz Click on the handle in my post. If it doesn't open, then your service provider (scicomm.xyz) is blocking Threads. You can complain to the operator, who can be found on the about page; or move to a Mastodon server that has a different policy (when you move accounts on Mastodon, you keep your followers).
Thanks, but I already moved servers once. I lost my post history and a bunch of followers from servers that require their users to manually approve new followers. Not exactly consequence free :(
Quokka@Gargron we don't publicise our server blocks because this has resulted in problems in the past. However, local users, such as @sharoz , may view the list when logged in.
However, regarding Threads, we were very open about our decision to block them and our reasons for doing so:
Quokka (@[email protected])
Regarding the position of scicomm.xyz on #Meta and in the Fediverse, #FediPact etc. After discussion between myself and the other mods and considering the views expressed by the people on our instance we have decided that pre-emptive blocking of Meta is warranted. There is more detail on the background and explanation of this decision in a post on our companion site, here: https://about.scicomm.xyz/doku.php?id=blog:2023:0625_meta_on_the_fediverse_to_block_or_not_to_block Thanks to our people for their comments and suggestions to help us reach this decision.
RobertJackson@RobertJackson58585858 @Gargron
And that's the problem with mastodon - I never know if I'm doing something wrong or if my server is restricting me somehow. It's like automated gaslighting.
Seán Fenian
Stefan Bohacek
Miles Offit... 🇨🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦@Gargron Governments as well as all medium to large public & private institutions IMHO. Why any CEO/board would cede control of their entire online presence to opaque for-profit corporations (especially those with horrendous track records and/or uncertain futures) is beyond me.
Lisa J. Warner / Lisa Luv🤗*THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING THIS!*I WISH YOU AN AWESOME DAY!🤗
Northants Greens@Gargron @potus that's why we're are here. We hope to see #TheGreenParty here which has been talked about and with elections coming up, would be nice opportunity to join the #Fediverse to connect with those that #WantGreenVoteGreen and can help #GetGreensElected . #SolarPunk #StarTrek
Benjamin Kwiecień 🇵🇸@Gargron I think there's a long way to go yet before this becomes a true success. I am running #GoToSocial, which implements Mastodon's API. Apparently Threads' standards compliance is so poor that GoToSocial cannot even federate with it. I agree with you that if the government wanted to self-host Mastodon, that would be a step in the right direction.
Nicole Parsons
liberloebi 📖
mempko
niamotullah@Gargron @[email protected] how to block instances like Threads on Mastodon?
ArtemesiaClick on any threads.net account. In the vertical ... link there will be an option to block the threads.net domain.
a2l5p6@niamotullah @Gargron @potus your instance admin needs to block the domain. You as user can block the domain too, but only to your account in your instance
Kevin Russell
Allegro con Fuoco
George Potter@largo @Gargron @potus I think the point is that it's a win to have the *option* to see what is being said on an official government social media account without having to join a billionaire controlled platform where your data and time is being exploited for corporate profit.
Whether anyone chooses to use that option or not is up to them.
Bart KnubbenGovernments active in the #fediverse with their own Mastodon servers:
- CH 🇨🇭: https://social.admin.ch
- DE 🇩🇪: https://social.bund.de
- EU 🇪🇺: https://social.network.europa.eu
- FR 🇫🇷: https://social.numerique.gouv.fr
- NL 🇳🇱: https://social.overheid.nl
