Pilotvesuch: Confederation communicates on Mastodon

The Federal Council and the federal administration have been using social media for communication for many years. Social media support them in fulfilling their legal mandate to provide information because they reach parts of the population there, especially younger people, whom they would have difficulty reaching through other channels.

Now, the Federal Chancellery has decided to give it a try on Mastodon, according to a statement from the Confederation. As "Social.admin.ch"The Federal Chancellery is available to the Federal Council and the departments for registering official accounts. Users with an account with another authority can follow the accounts on Social.admin.ch and read their content.

Currently, the FDFA, the FDHA and the EAER intend to operate one or more official accounts on social.admin.ch, according to the statement. The Federal Chancellery itself operates an account for the Federal Council spokesperson.

Mastodon is fundamentally attractive for government communication, according to the federal government. Because the platform is organized in a decentralized manner and does not run via a central server, it is beyond the control of both an individual company and government censorship authorities. In addition, Mastodon is data protection-friendly: the operators of the instances decide what happens to user data. The instance of the Federal Chancellery is also operated in a data protection-friendly manner.

In the course of the rapid development of social media, the federal administration is continuously examining whether new or previously unused platforms could be considered for its communications. This includes the pilot test with Mastodon, which is limited to one year. Then the federal administration intends to decide on how to proceed.