Project: a social network for journalists?

#1

First, congratulations to Mastodon and this active forum. Second, sorry in advance for the newbie questions that will follow…

I am thinking of a social network through which journalists could 1. confirm informations in real time and 2. spread these informations.

Mastodon, with its invite-based instance capability and its privacy management of toots, would be the perfect tool. I have three questions:

  • Confidentiality: Journalists should not be able to be traced. Does Mastodon provide an infrastructure strong enough that a third party cannot enter an instance and collect information?

  • Connection: Is it possible for a third party to easily block access to an instance (I am thinking of journalists in sensitive areas)?

  • Link with other social networks: Is it possible to build bridges with other social networks in order to have the possibility to post a louse on several platforms at the same time?

Thank you so much in advance!

#2

Please be aware that messages on the Mastodon network are not end-to-end encrypted, that means anybody having access to the instance, its database or unencrypted traffic can read all the messages. It cannot be used for serious whistleblowing in my opinion.

1 Like
#3

Thank you so much @saper!

#4

It’s quite easy for a malicious instance to ‘leak’ superficially private data from another Masto instance, so it’d be a very poor fit I think.

#5

So, I know someone was playing around with Onion and Mastodon. Maybe something like this would be relevant?

Using the Mastalab link here, because they were the ones talking about it:

https://mastodon.social/@tom79/99853821655140427

#6

I’m preparing to launch a Mastodon instance for journalists called Masthead. You can apply for the beta here, and check out the details here.

#7

XMPP based network could help like movim but dont know if they use any type of encryption