Eileen Brown ☑️Apr 10, 2017
So my question today is:
How will mastodon be governed? What's to stop the bad guys opening up instances and joining the federation?
Who says that subversive content is not allowed and should be taken off the instance, or banned.
Lots of challenges for a nascent platform I think..
Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ❌​Apr 10, 2017

@eileenb Admins and instances are autonomous. Each can decide what instances they do (or don't) peer with. This isn't unlike other network protocols like email (SMTP) or internet routing (BGP). There are channels for admins to talk to each other (an organisational mailing list), and tools which are built into protocols and servers themselves (Mastodon is only one of several at play).

It's safe to assume bad guys /will/ open instances, or worse, guys or girls who simply don't care what happens.

Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ❌​
@eileenb That's not to say there aren't consequences. There are already instances which have (or threatened) to ban others over the actions of a single user. Part of this comes down to how fine-grained tools are for moderation (at both the admin and user level), the challenges of identity and vetting (loose, and a major problem all over IT), the ease with which new instances and users can be created, etc., etc. I /don't/ agree that a total hands-off policy works or is appropriate, unlikke some.
Apr 10, 2017 at 10:23amWeb