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0 pointsMBCook3y ago0 comments

Right. Mastodon doesn’t have an equivalent to Twitter’s (old) verification system. So it’s on users to check if each individual is who they claim.

But if there is an official CNN Mastodon instance, it’s suddenly real easy to see if someone claiming to be a CNN reporter is real or not.

Are they @john.smith@cnn.news? If not they’re a fake.

It would also work for official Microsoft accounts or Colgate-Palmolive or the government.

Seems like a good idea to me. And if you like federation it sounds better than a semi-official instance everyone uses that verifies things, sort of recreating a mini-Twitter “super” instance that is “more equal” than the others.

0 pointsMBCook3y ago0 comments

Right. Mastodon doesn’t have an equivalent to Twitter’s (old) verification system. So it’s on users to check if each individual is who they claim.

But if there is an official CNN Mastodon instance, it’s suddenly real easy to see if someone claiming to be a CNN reporter is real or not.

Are they @john.smith@cnn.news? If not they’re a fake.

It would also work for official Microsoft accounts or Colgate-Palmolive or the government.

0 comments

6 comments · 4 top-level

sdiacom3y ago· 1 in thread

That's right, and self-hosting on a trusted domain is indeed the recommended form of indicating that an identity is trustable in the Mastodon docs.

Note, however, that Mastodon has a sort-of identity-ish verification system, in that a website link in your profile will be shown with a green check if the website links back to your profile with a `rel=me` attribute.

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/profile/#verification

MBCookOP3y ago

Oh neat. Thanks for pointing that out.

rambambram3y ago· 1 in thread

Can't a domain name, webserver and email address do the same thing? Or am I missing something?

MBCookOP3y ago

That’s what the instance name (hosted on their domain) provides.

I can put an @microsoft.come email in my profile, but it’s meaningless because it’s not verified.

But if MS has their own instance, then your handle(?) proves you have an account on that instance. And presumably only employees and company accounts would be allowed to have such user accounts.

fragmede3y ago

Sound ripe for confusion and we see this today with domain names and phishing. Are they @john.smith@cnn.com or @john.smith@cnnn.news or @john.smith@cnn.newss.com or @john.smith@cnn.news.hackers.ru?

gfaster3y ago

Mastodon does have a feature where you can verify you own a website by putting a hidden tag on it that links to your profile.

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