@TheJamieDub1 @bastianallgeier @mastodonusercount It's relevant to remember that mastodon itself and all of it's servers are "open source". Meaning that anyone with the know how can open the code and see what is going on inside.

If smn try to do something shady with it, the community will find out almost immediately. So there's little to no benefit for most social media shady practices that hurt the community.