downas

it's a fair question, considering some of the circumstances:

in november 2019, eugen rochko, CEO of mastodon gmbh & administrator of mastodon's flagship instance, banned the assam police in india from mastodon.social, citing community saftey concerns. however, a dutch police account, registered in 2016, remains on the instance more than 3 years after the assam police account was suspended, despite user reports & public warnings.

on another level, eugen has been shown to have loose connections to the european policing apparatus through the #EUnomia project, which is conducting research for surveillance & social control online. he was paid €63,290.07 to work for this european union-supported initiative.

he also suspended the accounts [1, 2] of two revolutionary colombian organizations, the FARC-EP & the ELN, from the flagship instance without explanation. given that these groups have been internationally targeted & isolated as “criminal” organizations & suspended from other social media sites at police request, this also raises red flags.

it would be relatively straightforward for eugen to issue a statement denying—or if necessary, detailing—any past, present, or intended future collaboration between mastodon & law enforcement agencies. to date, however, no such statement has been made.