Mastodon has quickly become the go-to place for many in recent weeks who have decided to leave Twitter. The open-source decentralized platform has many benefits, and the growing popularity will hopefully lead to additional features and functionality as the open-source platform continues to mature.
Still, those who join Mastodon should not consider the platform as an equivalent replacement for Twitter and should be aware of the special characteristics of the Fediverse. Each instance is managed by an administrator who has control over the infrastructure and the software running on the servers. This means users must rely on admins to secure and control their instance and that they will protect their accounts. Since many cases are small teams or individual operators without large budgets or security teams, one should not assume that an instance is secure or private.
Mastodon: share sensitive information
That doesn't mean you shouldn't use Mastodon, but users shouldn't assume that the data shared there is encrypted or safe from theft or confiscation by law enforcement. It's best to think of the Fediverse and each Mastodon instance as a place where you can share information, connect, and collaborate, just as you would in person at a marketplace or public cafe. Therefore, users should not use Mastodon to send sensitive, personal, or private information that they would not otherwise share publicly.
Additionally, given the potential for vulnerabilities and exploits, users should follow account management best practices – unique passwords and multi-factor authentication. Finally, many instances have been set up specifically to test security and report bugs and vulnerabilities, so the ethical hacking and bug hunting community can continue to help improve the security of the platform as its popularity grows.
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