Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) has launched its own dedicated Mastodon server, social.freedom.press. This move consolidates our presence across the fediverse, uniting various existing FPF accounts under one umbrella.

Uniting FPF’s Mastodon presence

The fediverse (of which Mastodon is a part) is an alternative to centralized approaches to social media. Like email, users from many different servers can follow and interact with each other.

In recent years, FPF has operated several accounts on the fediverse, hosted across different servers. By moving to social.freedom.press, we bring together the following accounts under a unified home:

With this consolidation, all FPF-related activity on Mastodon is now accessible from a single server (also known as an instance).

A dedicated instance allows us to maintain a stable and independent platform to engage with our supporters, ensuring continuity and resilience. It’s a step toward fortifying our social media independence and keeping our accounts secure, now and in the future.

A vital alternative to centralized social media

The fediverse offers a critical alternative to traditional, corporate-controlled social media platforms. It’s an open, decentralized ecosystem of interconnected servers that function independently yet can communicate across the network.

Unlike conventional social media, where algorithms and third-party interests increasingly shape the visibility and reach of content, the fediverse is nonalgorithmic and community-driven, without the potential algorithmic distortions or content suppression imposed by centralized platforms.

Joining the fediverse can ensure that an organization’s voice remains unfiltered and accessible to its audience, no matter how the policies of major social media companies may evolve. As we face an incoming presidency that has made no secret of its disdain for journalists and has threatened to destroy press freedom, social media sovereignty is more important than ever.

Getting started with your own instance

For news organizations in particular, the fediverse provides a direct pathway to engage with audiences on their terms. By moving away from proprietary social media platforms that may prioritize ad revenue or content curation over open dialogue, organizations gain greater autonomy in sharing updates, stories, and critical information.

Our instance is proudly hosted with masto.host, a specialized hosting service that provides full support for setting up, scaling, and maintaining an independent Mastodon instance. For news organizations interested in following a similar path, there are several hosting providers that can assist in creating dedicated instances with custom domains.

Follow us on our new handles:

Thank you to the more than 5,000 followers on our fediverse accounts. If you’re not active on Mastodon yet, consider creating an account!

If you are on Mastodon and your server does not block Threads, you can also follow the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker on Threads from Mastodon, an example of the interoperability that’s built into the fediverse.

Alongside our presence on the fediverse, we remain active on Bluesky, another thriving social media platform with a commitment to decentralization and open protocols.