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Ownership

Leaving corporate-owned social media​

I left Twitter after the purchase by Elon Musk when fact checking and privacy controls were deeply curtailed. In recent weeks, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and other large social media platforms have:

  • Rolled Back Fact-Checking Efforts: They have reduced or de-prioritized partnerships with independent fact-checkers, leaving harmful or misleading content unchecked.
  • Allowed Hateful Content to Flourish: Their policies are inconsistent at best, often failing to protect vulnerable groups, including LGBTQI+ and immigrant communities. Harassment and hate speech against these groups frequently remain online.

By leaving corporate-owned platforms, I’m choosing to support community-driven tools that prioritize user control, open-source technology, and inclusive, respectful conversations.

What is Mastodon and the Fediverse?​

  • Mastodon is a decentralized social network that functions similarly to Twitter and Bluesky. Instead of one company owning everything, there are many community-run servers (or “instances”) that all talk to each other.
  • The Fediverse is the larger network of these interconnected services, built on open standards (like ActivityPub). Having an account on one server doesn’t restrict who you can interact with, just like how you can email people using different email providers.

Think of an “instance” like an email domain (e.g., Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo). No matter which domain you have, you can still send and receive messages from people on other domains. Mastodon works the same way: once you pick a server, you can follow anyone on any other server (and vice versa).

How to Join Mastodon​

First, pick an instance. You can sign up on any server you like. Regardless of which one you choose, you’ll still be able to follow and interact with people on other servers. Here are a few great instances you might consider:

  • jawns.club for folks in the Philadelphia area
  • dmv.community for people in DC, Maryland, and Virginia
  • dice.camp for fans of tabletop role-playing games
  • If you prefer something more Instagram-like, try Pixelfed for a photo-centric experience.
  • You can also create an account on my instance, epistolary.org.

Sign up: Create an account just like you would on any other site.

Start following: Look for friends or interesting accounts across the Fediverse. You can find me at @vees@epistolary.org or head to https://epistolary.org/@vees directly.

Other Resources​

Last updated on by Rob Carlson