The government's Mastodon server is up and running as of this week. The server is available via the url social.overheid.nl and is intended for accounts of government organizations and government ministers.
Mastodon is a federated social medium ("federated social media"). This means that anyone can set up a Mastodon server and have it interact with the network of Mastodon servers. Users' data are therefore not owned by one party, nor do they come together in one place. Through a Mastodon account you can share short messages and respond to other accounts. Citizens with accounts on other Mastodon servers can also follow government organizations and respond to their messages.
The government's Mastodon environment is a pilot environment. At the moment there is room for about 20 organizations to test in the coming months what they encounter when using it (for communication). This gives the opportunity to learn and then take further improvement steps. The pilot will be evaluated in the second half of 2023.
With a separate Mastodon server for government, Secretary of State Van Huffelen is giving space to an alternative to existing online platforms. Large messaging platforms have a lot of influence on, for example, access to messaging. With the launch of social.overheid.nl. the government is promoting an alternative designed from public values.
