OPERATOR are
facts only the operator can supply: who to contact about
federation, and which remote instances this one will and will not
talk to. Fill them in, and have a qualified lawyer read the
result, before presenting this document as binding.
The contact points in these documents are the project's own. If you run your own
instance, replace them with yours before you publish them.
Version: 1.0 ·
Template last revised: 2026-09-20 ·
Effective on this instance:
OPERATOR: the date this policy takes effect on this instance
1. What federation is
Federation is how one instance exchanges content with another. It exists so that a community can keep talking to its members when the members are spread across more than one server, and so that two communities that already know each other can share what they choose to share.
It is not a social network of instances, and it does not make one instance part of another. Each instance remains its own system, with its own accounts, its own rules, and its own operator.
2. It is off unless somebody turns it on
Federation is disabled by default, and an instance that leaves it off is fully functional on its own: communities, channels, direct messages, roles and moderation all work exactly as they do elsewhere. Turning it on is a decision for the operator, and turning it off again must always be possible.
3. What is shared, and what never is
Only content that a community or a member has explicitly authorised is shared. Nothing is federated because it happens to be on the instance.
- Direct messages are not federated by default. A member has to turn it on for a conversation, per conversation, and the operator can prevent it entirely.
- Private channels do not become remotely visible without an explicit decision by the people who control them.
- Local bans, permissions and roles stay local. A remote instance cannot see them, and cannot grant itself access that a local role has not given it.
- Account data stays where the account is. A federated account is a reference, not a copy of somebody's account.
4. What turning it on takes on
An operator who enables federation is accepting content from servers they do not control, run by people they have not met, under laws they do not write. Before enabling it, the operator should be able to answer a few questions:
- Who is responsible for the content that arrives, and what happens to it when it breaks a rule?
- Which remote instances will be allowed in, and which will be refused?
- How will a person whose content arrived here get it removed, and how quickly?
- What will happen to a remote instance that keeps sending material that breaks the rules here?
The contact for federation questions on this instance is OPERATOR: who to contact about federation on this instance, and the list of remote instances it will talk to is OPERATOR: which remote instances this instance will federate with, and how that list is changed.
5. A remote instance is not trusted
A remote instance is a server operated by somebody else. It cannot assign itself administrative rights on this instance, it cannot override a local ban, and it cannot see anything here that a local role has not authorised. Where a remote instance sends something that breaks the rules here, the content is treated as content posted here.
The rules in the acceptable use rules apply to federated content exactly as they apply to everything else.
6. Moderation across a federation
A member of this instance can be banned here even when their account lives on a remote instance, and a remote instance can refuse to deliver anything from a member banned here. Local decisions are local, and a remote instance's decision does not bind this one, though this instance's may be respected by the other.
A complaint about content that arrived by federation is handled here for the content that arrived, and the operator may also pass it to the operator of the remote instance. How that is done is OPERATOR: how a complaint about a remote instance is made to this operator, and how it is passed on.
7. Child safety across a federation
Child sexual abuse material is prohibited on every instance, and federation is not a way around it. Material of that kind that arrives over federation is removed, the account and any bot or integration that sent it is removed, and the remote instance is told, and is cut off where the operator has the ability to cut it off. Where the law requires the material to be reported to an authority, it is reported.
An operator who runs an instance does not become exempt from the law that applies to them, and neither does anybody else who runs one. The Trust and Safety page describes the reporting route.
8. Turning it off
Federation can be turned off without taking the instance offline, and doing so should not silently delete the content that has already been exchanged. When it is turned off, remote relationships are closed, delivery failures are visible to the operator, and members are told what has changed.
9. Changes to this policy
This policy changes with the software and with the operator's decisions. The version and the date are at the top of the page, and a change that removes a capability people rely on is announced on the instance before it takes effect.