I'm not entirely sure if mastodon.social has published any policy clarifying how and under what circumstances they apply instance bans. There are two ways admin

I'm not entirely sure if mastodon.social has published any policy clarifying how and under what circumstances they apply instance bans. There are two ways administrators can block other instances on Mastodon: Silence: Posts from users of these instances are only visible to users following that user directly, but not in public timelines. Suspend: All posts from users of these instances are always removed, even if you follow them directly. I would suspect that most admins stick with the first option for almost all bans. That said, users who are concerned about this should stick to instances with a broad interpretation of free speech.