hey, folx, in case nobody informed you, instances with bad actor administrators on them are literally a hazard to your safety
i am not attempting to scare you, and i am not exaggerating when i say that what instances you federate your posts to is a very important choice and thing to consider.
i cannot tell you who to trust or not, although if you want i will give you some people i personally do not trust, and thus would personally block, but i can tell you how to take care of yourself.
A) the attached screenshot is a great feature we have on mastodon instances, for forcing instances/users to unfollow you. if you do not trust an instance, for whatever reason, force them to unfollow through this menu!
B) block the people you don't trust. this isn't a great solution, and if your posts still go to that instance because someone on that instance does follow you, it won't do anything if a bad actor administrator wants to spy on you
C) lock your account. it should be more normalized, because it is a big deal to have an unlocked account. if your account is unlocked, a foreign instance might follow you without you even knowing, thanks to fediverse weirdness. this will probably NOT federate private posts, but it will get anything nonprivate, and if say, another intermediate instance has a bad actor administrator who you have let follow you, they could get your private posts with modified server tech. this part is true whether your account is locked or not, but regardless, locking your account gives you more control over who can see your posts and more knowledge of when someone is following you in general. it makes you think before allowing things, which is a positive, even if you don't think too much.
D) think about what you post publically. a lot. anyone can access this, if you do.
take care of yourself, folx.
