Gregory's Server@evan I only wonder how the legal aspect works out. Maybe the model for mastodon with the backing of the academic world would work out to a domain where the first amendment legitimately applies to social media.
So far we haven't had that problem but some colleges are state institutions and if the network isn't a private dealio with some kind of loop hole its gonna be a can of worms for a government that has mostly had to deal with social media as a private and hence first amendment exempt venue.
On principle I am in favor of an adequate domain for a market place of ideas that functions in the spirit of the right to free speech with the exceptions for all the obvious.
We have our supposed town squares siloed off as corporate fifedoms.
In practice seeing the technological ineptitude of our elected officials on display I am not hopeful that our lawmakers can reasonably foster a healthy dialogue inclusive of the ideological spectrum without creating a machine that could be coopted.
@NoahH @evan I voted only "qualified yes" - Universities are in different countries with their own domestic laws; and early years students are often minors in many jurisdictions (particularly intelligent young people who have moved up a year during high school). so all the safeguarding laws apply, which include social networks being expected to fully co-operate with law enforcement and hand over data (which could include federated data from other instances) if something goes bad online..