Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws

Mastodon, the decentralized social networking platform, has announced its inability to adhere to Mississippi's age verification legislation, a decision that mirrors the recent withdrawal of competitor Bluesky from the state. The non-profit organization clarified that due to its user privacy protocols, enforcing such regulations poses significant challenges. Mastodon does not track its users, making it impractical to implement the required age checks. In a recent exchange between Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko and Bluesky board member Mike Masnick, Rochko emphasized the decentralized nature of the Fediverse, which includes Mastodon and operates on the ActivityPub protocol. He stated, "There is nobody that can decide for the fediverse to block Mississippi," highlighting the importance of true decentralization. Masnick countered Rochko's claims by questioning why individual Mastodon servers, including the one managed by Rochko at mastodon.social, would not face the same penalties for noncompliance, which can amount to $10,000 per user. As the discussion unfolded, Mastodon gGmbH did not respond to requests for further clarification. However, the non-profit later issued a statement to TechCrunch, reaffirming that while their platform sets a minimum age of 16 for account creation, it lacks the capability to implement age verification. The recent update, Mastodon 4.4, introduced features allowing server administrators to specify minimum ages for sign-ups and other legalities, responding to growing regulatory scrutiny. However, it is important to note that this update does not retain age verification data, placing the responsibility on individual server operators to adopt age checking measures. Mastodon also indicated that it cannot provide operational assistance to the broader community of Mastodon server operators at this time. Instead, it encourages these administrators to utilize available online resources, such as the IFTAS library, which offers support for social network moderators. The organization advises server owners to remain aware of the laws applicable in their respective jurisdictions. Furthermore, Mastodon highlighted its founding principle of enabling diverse social media experiences that operate independently of U.S. regulations. The platform allows users to select servers based on policies that align with their preferences and needs.