That doesn't stop grumpy admin of a federated instance to just do exactly same thing. > run by people we trust People change, or retire, just like corporation

That doesn't stop grumpy admin of a federated instance to just do exactly same thing. > run by people we trust People change, or retire, just like corporation goals change. Focusing on more independent is not enough. If you want truly unbreakable stuff first part of the puzzle is saving user's handle and identity in a way that can't be removed. Then finding out a way to link that to their content so when place of hosting it goes away people can follow to the new place Then just have all of that content be signed by that identity so users can verify that it is really that person. And I can't believe I'm saying that unironically but blockchain might just be the solution for that. Something like immutable log of: * user declaring "I'm jeff@example.com, here are my public keys". Servers then validate via DNS record or some .well-known location entry whether user is allowed to declare they are from @example.com * user declaring "behold! jeff@example.com stuff is <here>, and <here> and <here> are addresses for various federation systems". Only passes if that request is signed with above privkey of course * user declaring "behold! My new public key is X and Y. And Z key is revoked!" * user declaring "behold! I am now george.effluent@company.com! Re-does checks but for new domain and users previously subscribed to jeff@example com get served redirect". etc. Then when server admin inevitably goes rogue you can take your posts and subscribers and go somewhere else. And when @example.com owner decides "well I'm just gonna to redirect stuff to ads", you can just change your handle and direct people to right place, and other handle is forever taken.