01/06/2025 12:23

Dear Supporters of our appeal in favour of Mastodon,

the developments in the USA made it very clear how important the internet platforms have become in the political debate. Disguised as “free speech”, they have become propaganda tools for autocrats who want to abolish our democracy. For advocates of digitalization geared towards the common good, for climate and environmental activists, for human and civil rights activists, the use of the large platforms has turned out to be - in hindsight - a wrong decision. Although many people were reached through these channels, they also supported the development of a machinery whose centralized control and algorithms are now massively marginalizing the issues of civil society.

From the perspective of the New Social Media Action Alliance, we have to perform a digital transformation towards the use of Fediverse services. We have made good progress on this path in recent months. Mastodon is being increasingly used, especially at universities and research institutes. A colleague from ChaosComputerClub has programmed a list based on Wikidata on which these accounts are updated daily:
mastodon-listen.playground.54gradsoftware.de/?liste=institute-de

Please follow the accounts mentioned there and make them known in your networks. To protect our democracy, we need to promote the use of Mastodon by public institutions and make it the new normal. - Wishing you every success with further activities for the Fediverse