In response to Joe Biden and the White House enabling ActivityPub federation via Threads, a number of people asked: "Why didn't the White House just self-host their own Mastodon server?"

Here's some very basic musings on what it would take for that to happen. and what some of the hurdles are. Don't consider it a definitive answer, but a jumping-off point.

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[–] jg1i@lemmy.world 26 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I was wondering the same thing. It seems more proper to run a separate government Mastodon server. Otherwise, they're showing preferential treatment to one company.

Although... they probably can't handle self hosting? But really? The all mighty US can't self host a server?

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They'd just pay a contractor to stand up a server on azure or AWS. Most of the labor would be moderation which is probably why they won't do it.

They couldn't remove anything without Republicans crying censorship. And because it's government run, first amendment protections apply. Which means they couldn't remove a lot of what moderators already do.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

remove anything

Uh, a US Government mastodon server wouldn't have any way to sign up and comment. I assume it would be all one way announcements.

Who cares about randos who want to talk to the president? People were posting dead bodies on Biden's announcements on Threads.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 12 points 7 months ago

If you don't think some Lemmy instances are being run from Fort Meade and Quantico, you're not paranoid enough.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 10 points 7 months ago

Other governments have done it, even the BBC have as well