# Federated communication for public authorities

## Replace proprietary communication channels with alternatives on the Fediverse. Authorities should communicate legally and respect citizens' privacy.

Take Action Fedi... What?!

# Reasons to change

### Make your move to an ethical communication.

Sovereignty Digital sovereignty pursues the goal of realizing the independent and self-determined use and design of digital technologies by the state, the economy and individuals. It is not only in the light of current international crises that the immense risk to the economy and society from dependence on individual providers in international markets is becoming clear.

Privacy Don’t force citizens to give away their data to mega corps like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) and Google (Youtube), just because people want to communicate with you. The business model of these companies is profiling your customers for the purpose of targeted advertising.

Public Money The use of taxpayers’ money should be used for the benefit of the population and to fulfill the legal obligations of public authorities. If they use Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and Whatsapp for their communication, they support the business model of these international companies.

Lawful According to several national and European court rulings, the use of social networks of the US digital corporations is not compatible with the GDPR and therefore against the law. As a public authority, it is more than necessary to communicate with citizens within the framework of the legal rules.

## Open Channels

### on the Fediverse

#### Mastodon instead of Twitter

Microblogging

Get started

#### Pixelfed instead of Instagram

Photo Sharing

Get started

#### Peertube instead of Youtube

Video Sharing

Get started

## Fediverse

### An ensemble of federated services that are used for social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites and file hosting.

Explore Mastodon

## Follow our good example

### We stepped into an ad-free, privacy-focused and sovereign communication with citizens.

> Die Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit. Hier trötet das Referat Gremien-, Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit.

##### Maja Smoltczyk

Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz

> Mit dem Pilotstart von EU Voice und EU Video wollen wir alternative Plattformen für soziale Medien anbieten, die dem Einzelnen und seinem Recht auf Privatsphäre und Datenschutz Priorität einräumen.

##### Wojciech Wiewiórowski

European Data Protection Supervisor

> Der Datenschutzbeauftragte von Baden-Württemberg sagt, Mastodon ist kein vollständiger, aber doch ein guter Twitter-Ersatz.

##### Stefan Brink

Datenschutzbeauftragte von Baden-Württemberg

## Send a letter to your authorities

### A letter gets higher attention than an e-mail. Please copy the text below and send a letter to your government agencies.

Address
Subject: Use of ‘social media’ in your authority
Dear Minister,
Your authority provides various communication channels for contacting and exchanging information with your fellow citizens. ‘Social media’ is playing an increasingly important role in this, but there are also some pitfalls that come with it. Control, transparency and access play just as important a role as sovereignty and legal requirements. It is with great concern that we have seen in the recent past that not all of these networks adhere to those requirements and that far-reaching regulations are necessary to protect citizens.
Therefore, it is important to use alternative services and to strengthen these offers. More and more public authorities are gathered on the decentralized Free Software platform Mastodon to share short texts, images and videos. For example there is https://social.network.europa.eu/public run by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) or https://social.bund.de offered by the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI).
We would be pleased if your authority also decides to follow this progressive approach and make this communication channel available in the future.
Best regards,

Send an e-mail