Data Ethics in the Fediverse: Analyzing the Role of Instance Policies in Mastodon Research
Social and Information Networks
2025-05-13 v1
Abstract
This article addresses the disconnect between the individual policy documents of Mastodon instances--many of which explicitly prohibit data collection for research purposes--and the actual data handling practices observed in academic research involving Mastodon. We present a systematic analysis of 29 works that used Mastodon as a data source, revealing limited adherence to instance--level policies despite researchers' general awareness of their existence. Our findings underscore the need for broader discussion about ethical obligations in research on alternative, decentralized social media platforms.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2505.07606,
title = {Data Ethics in the Fediverse: Analyzing the Role of Instance Policies in Mastodon Research},
author = {Mareike Lisker and Helena Mihaljević},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.07606},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
19th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media ICWSM 2025, Next-Gen and Alternative Social Media workshop, 8 pages, 1 figure