<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><base href="https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2022/11/21/we-joined-mastodon-heres-what-we-learned-about-privacy-and-security"><!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><title>We Joined Mastodon. Here’s What We Learned About Privacy and Security – The Markup</title><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:-apple-system-font;
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
h1
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
font-weight:bold;}
h2
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 2 Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:18.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
font-weight:bold;}
h3
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 3 Char";
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
font-weight:bold;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.Heading1Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1";
font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#2F5496;}
span.byline
{mso-style-name:byline;}
span.Heading3Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 3 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 3";
font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#1F3763;}
span.converted-anchor
{mso-style-name:converted-anchor;}
span.Heading2Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 2 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 2";
font-family:"Calibri Light",sans-serif;
color:#2F5496;}
span.EmailStyle28
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br><a href="https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2022/11/21/we-joined-mastodon-heres-what-we-learned-about-privacy-and-security">https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2022/11/21/we-joined-mastodon-heres-what-we-learned-about-privacy-and-security</a><o:p></o:p></p><h1 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:0in;mso-line-height-alt:14.55pt;text-align:start;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:25.5pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>We Joined Mastodon. Here’s What We Learned About Privacy and Security<o:p></o:p></span></h1><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><span class=byline><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>By <a href="https://themarkup.org/people/jon-keegan/"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Jon Keegan</span></a>, Rachel Auslander, <a href="https://themarkup.org/people/dan-phiffer/"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Dan Phiffer</span></a>, and <a href="https://themarkup.org/people/maria-puertas/"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Maria Puertas</span></a></span></span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>November 21, 2022 13:00 ET<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'><a href="/series/the-breakdown"><span style='color:#416ED2'>The Breakdown</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>As Elon Musk sends Twitter into chaos, we’re sharing what we picked up about Mastodon as we selected a server <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'><img border=0 id="_x0000_i1028" src="https://mrkp-static-production.themarkup.org/uploads/2022/11/GettyImages-1244584770_reduced-841x473.jpg" alt="In this photo illustration, Mastodon app homepage is seen displayed on a mobile phone screen."><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Davide Bonaldo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Many of us at The Markup are active Twitter users who are witnessing a platform that has been such an important part of journalism descend into what Elon Musk might call a “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/555981841476227072?lang=en" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>rapid unscheduled disassembly</span></a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>The <a href="https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1590724257608134657?s=20&t=h1-8hXGiC4DV-RRYmu_a4A" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>chaos</span></a> of late sparked a migration of sorts, as some Twitter users have sought out a new home on Mastodon, an ad-free, “decentralized,” open social platform that launched in 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>We wanted to share what we’ve learned about the privacy, security, and culture of this platform as we parse these dynamics ourselves in real time. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>If you’ve been considering signing up for Mastodon, here are some things we have been thinking about as we take the leap: <o:p></o:p></span></p><h3 style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:16.5pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>The server, or “instance,” you choose affects your privacy and what rules you’re asked to follow<o:p></o:p></span></h3><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>When setting up an account, users need to <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/servers" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>choose an “instance.”</span></a> Your instance will be reflected in your username similarly to how an email address reveals its email provider (i.e., <a href="mailto:yourname@gmail.com">yourname@gmail.com</a> or <a href="mailto:yourname@proton.me">yourname@proton.me</a>). Unlike email, on Mastodon you can move to another instance and take your followers with you, but it is possible your username won’t be available. Also, you should engage in some due diligence before picking the instance you will join. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>One of the most interesting aspects of Mastodon’s distributed design is that anyone with intermediate technical skills (such as setting up servers or working with command line tools) can launch a server and host their own instance of Mastodon. The server software (which runs each instance) is open source and designed to be self-hosted. Mastodon does not set the community rules or privacy policies for the entire platform, but Mastodon’s parent nonprofit organization does maintain a <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/servers" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>directory of servers</span></a> that have all agreed to a baseline set of policies known as the “<a href="https://joinmastodon.org/covenant" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Mastodon Server Covenant</span></a>,” which, in part, requires “active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Each instance has its own policies to define its community, including the default language, content moderation standards, topics, and general house rules. The administrators of your instance will have a lot of control over your content and your account, so depending upon how you are planning on using Mastodon, this choice matters a lot. Specifics around what types of behavior are considered abusive, how rules are enforced, whether the instances stall new membership, and conflict resolution among individual accounts vary among instances. You can find the contact information for who runs each server and the rules on the server’s “About” page. (Here’s the About page for <a href="https://mastodon.social/about" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>mastodon.social</span></a>, the server that is run by the nonprofit organization behind Mastodon.) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>You can change your follower settings and whether you want a post to be public or private. There is <a href="https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/posting/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>no way</span></a> to retroactively make past public posts private, but you can always delete—or auto-delete—any of your past posts. Even if your account is currently “locked,” which means you must approve all follow requests, users can still view your public posts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Admins also control which other servers are blocked from interacting with its users, which is intended to prevent harassment or spam. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>One example of an instance with more detailed policies is <a href="https://friend.camp/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Friend.camp</span></a> (which is currently closed to new users). Its <a href="https://friend.camp/about/more#pp" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>privacy policy</span></a> lays out clearly that users are putting their privacy in the hands of the server’s administrator, who promises not to look at users’ private data, noting, “You are just going to have to trust him on this.” While not all instances use such clear language, this dynamic is basically the same on all Mastodon instances. You have no guarantee that admins won’t read or adjust any aspect of your account. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>It’s worth noting here that there is more than one type of “admin” user: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><span class=converted-anchor><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>↩︎ link</span></span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><h3 style='line-height:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:16.5pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>DMs differ significantly on Mastodon<o:p></o:p></span></h3><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>When you are sending a direct message to another user, you need to be careful, as Mastodon differs significantly from other platforms here. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>DMs are private posts:</span></strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> “Direct messages” are essentially posts that are only visible to the sender and any designated recipients. Any users you mention will get tagged into the thread and gain access to the contents of that thread going forward. Unlike Twitter, there is no separate inbox for direct messages on Mastodon. So even though your direct message will only be visible to the users you specifically mention (using their handle), you will see the message on your timeline. An “@” symbol below the message will designate it as a post between users mentioned, whereas an earth icon indicates a post is in public view.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><em><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Left:</span></em><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> Composing a direct message to a user. Note the “@” symbol indicating it is only visible to the mentioned users. <em><span style='font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Right:</span></em> Composing a public post, which displays an earth icon, indicating visibility to all. Source: Newsie.social <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>DM’ing someone on a different server allows other admins to see your DM:</span></strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> The privacy <a href="https://friend.camp/about/more#pp" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>policy</span></a> on Friend.camp warns its users about sending direct messages to users in other instances: “Any private message you send to someone on another server could be looked at by the admin of a different server.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Posts—DMs included—are not end-to-end encrypted by default:</span></strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> When you are about to message another user in Mastodon’s web interface, it warns, “Posts on Mastodon are not end-to-end encrypted. Do not share any sensitive information over Mastodon.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Gizmodo created a <a href="https://gizmodo.com/mastodon-how-to-dm-send-messages-twitter-1849759852" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>thorough guide</span></a> on everything you need to know about sending DMs on Mastodon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><span class=converted-anchor><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>↩︎ link</span></span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><h2 style='mso-line-height-alt:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:18.5pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Apps and Security<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Mastodon offers two-factor authentication, and you should definitely enable it. On the Mastodon web interface, go to Preferences > Account > Two-factor Auth. You can then scan a QR code using an authentication app, such as Google Authenticator, to complete the setup. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>In addition to the platform’s own app, there are many different ways to access Mastodon on a phone via apps like Tusky and Metatext. (You can find a list of third-party apps on the Mastodon website: <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/apps" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>https://joinmastodon.org/apps</span></a>.) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>You can think of the apps as different web browsers, in the same way you can view a particular webpage through the Safari, Chrome, or Firefox browser. The third-party apps have their own privacy policies and can/do collect your data for a variety of purposes (including to serve you targeted ads). Read each app’s privacy policy carefully (e.g. <a href="https://metabolist.org/privacy-policy" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>https://metabolist.org/privacy-policy</span></a>), as the app is a party that can access your data and possibly share or sell it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><span class=converted-anchor><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>↩︎ link</span></span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><h2 style='mso-line-height-alt:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:18.5pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Accessibility<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>The iOS screen reader, VoiceOver, initially could not be used to compose new posts in Mastodon’s iOS app. On Oct. 30, Mastodon <a href="https://twitter.com/joinmastodon/status/1586864478959845376" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>tweeted</span></a>, “We’ll try to do better,” in response to a blind user who raised the issue. A <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios/releases/tag/1.4.7" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>subsequent update</span></a> to the iOS app released on Nov. 20, appears to have fixed the problem with VoiceOver. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Still, the Mastodon iOS app currently only allows users to listen to alt text through a screen reader and does not <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/yq6eed/what_happens_to_all_of_the_descriptive_text_on/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>display</span></a> the alt text. Using third-party apps such as Metatext and Husky or accessing Mastodon via a web browser are <a href="https://twitter.com/HabenGirma/status/1586829640827404288" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>workaround</span></a> solutions for now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>The Mastodon web interface includes a text box for writing accessible image descriptions. Its latest version alerts you with a nudge that reads, “no description added,” if you haven’t included alt text. The interface also offers an option to extract text from an image using optical character recognition (OCR). The Mastodon iOS app does offer computer-generated image descriptions when alt text is not included, but the results are predictably rudimentary and not a viable replacement for human-written image descriptions. If you access Mastodon via a browser, no computer-generated alt text is included.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Mastodon, and the “<a href="https://fediverse.party/en/fediverse/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>fediverse</span></a>” ecosystem of decentralized services that it is part of, have been around for a while now. There’s a large community of users and administrators who have spent years defining the vibe for these social spaces. Keep that in mind when learning the norms and etiquette on a platform that has some important <a href="https://uxdesign.cc/mastodon-is-antiviral-design-42f090ab8d51" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>“anti-viral” features</span></a> that set it apart from its advertising-driven counterparts. For example, you can enable “slow mode” on the Mastodon web interface, which makes you click a button before more posts show up in your timeline rather than being overwhelmed by the never-ending firehose of tweets that may have kept you glued to your phone far longer than you had intended.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Your Mastodon timeline is just a reverse chronological feed of the people you follow, or the posts from people on your instance only (and not across all of Mastodon). There’s no mysterious algorithm optimized for your attention.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>You should also <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-get-started-use-mastodon/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>get up to speed</span></a> on the other cultural dos and don’ts on Mastodon, such as the widely used “content warning” field, which allows users to clearly label sensitive, triggering content and offers followers an opportunity to choose whether to see that content. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:18.0pt'><span class=converted-anchor><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>↩︎ link</span></span><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><h2 style='mso-line-height-alt:18.0pt'><span style='font-size:18.5pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>How We Chose Our Server<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>So how did The Markup choose which server it should use to join Mastodon, especially as servers for the <a href="https://themarkup.org/newsletter/hello-world/mastodons-moment"><span style='color:#416ED2'>journalism community</span></a> are gaining traction? Our starting point was simple: Where are other similar newsrooms? Many have yet to take the leap, but we saw <a href="https://newsie.social/@STAT" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>STAT</span></a>, <a href="https://newsie.social/@Chron" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>Chron</span></a>, and <a href="https://newsie.social/@ProPublica" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>ProPublica</span></a> had chosen newsie.social. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>First, we checked out the server’s </span></strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'><a href="https://newsie.social/about" target="_blank"><strong><span style='font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif;color:#416ED2'>rules</span></strong></a><strong><span style='font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>.</span></strong> Like many, it outlines standard policies against discrimination and harassment as well as misinformation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Second, we headed to the server’s </span></strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'><a href="https://newsie.social/privacy-policy" target="_blank"><strong><span style='font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif;color:#416ED2'>privacy policy</span></strong></a><strong><span style='font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>.</span></strong> The policy is fairly pared down compared to other social platforms, and that has to do with the fact that Mastodon isn’t monetizing its users’ every move. Information collected is said to be used to keep the server functioning. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Finally, we decided to avoid communicating any sensitive information—like responding to tips—via the platform. </span></strong><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>Without end-to-end encryption, it doesn’t make sense to use Mastodon for tips, and we’ll continue to direct people to all the other ways they <a href="https://themarkup.org/tips"><span style='color:#416ED2'>can share tips with us</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>We ultimately felt good about the server’s policies and wanted to be in the same place as other newsrooms like ours, so we set up shop there at <a href="https://newsie.social/@themarkup" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>newsie.social/@themarkup</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='max-width:100%'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif'>For now, this account will be an experiment. We can’t say what it will look like in a few months, but we’re excited to try something new alongside our readers. Existing on social media while critiquing it has been part of what we do since day one. Mastodon will be no different. We hope to see you there: <a href="https://newsie.social/@themarkup" target="_blank"><span style='color:#416ED2'>newsie.social/@themarkup</span></a>.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>