Announcing new Terms of Service for our servers

Today, we’re announcing new User Terms of Service (ToS) for the two Mastodon servers we run, mastodon.social and mastodon.online. The new ToS will go into effect on August 31, 2026. Read on to learn what’s changing.

What has happened so far?

We launched a first version of our User Terms of Service (ToS), effective July 01st, 2025. We received strong feedback from the community, especially regarding (i) the User ToS sounding too corporate and anti-consumerist (e.g., regarding forced arbitration clauses) and (ii) confusion whether the User ToS would apply to the whole Mastodon network or only the servers Mastodon GmbH manages, mastodon.social and mastodon.online. We therefore went back to the drawing board and created a completely new ToS with the help of Neil Brown from decoded.legal, who generously supported us with a pro-bono mandate. We have then augmented Neil’s expert legal advice on the specifics of the fediverse with a couple of additions from our legal counsel in Germany. To make the process much more transparent this time, we put the draft terms for community review in October 2025. We then collected all the feedback and implemented the comments which we considered both legally correct and useful.

What is happening now?

Today, we are launching a new ToS for users on mastodon.social and mastodon.online. They will come into effect on August 31, 2026. These terms apply strictly to users registered on mastodon.social and mastodon.online. As always, independent servers across the wider fediverse operate under their own administrative rules. Mastodon GmbH has no way or interest in dictating rules for servers we do not control ourselves.

Having said that, there are early ideas for our future EU-based non-profit holding organisation to offer legal advice and resources to third-party Mastodon instance administrators to ease the burden of legal compliance for them.

We are also considering bringing back the User ToS generator for instance administrators. If you’re interested in seeing us do that, let us know by sending an email to feedback@joinmastodon.org.

Why do we need user ToS in the first place?

Until now, our flagship servers have operated primarily under instance rules and code of conduct guidelines. These new User ToS formalise our agreement with our users, providing a clear legal structure for using our servers while upholding the open, user-first ethos of the fediverse. It also simply makes many things clear and explicit, which have been implicit over the years.

Here is what these terms establish:

• Clear definitions of user responsibilities, account management, and acceptable use.
• Explicit clarification regarding content ownership and how federation rights operate on our servers.

You can read the full document on mastodon.social and mastodon.online

DSA compliance and commercial ToS

The updates to our ToS ensure that our flagship servers remain safe, sustainable, and independent. In parallel and adjacently related, we had multiple exchanges with the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) regarding DSA compliance during the first half of 2026. These exchanges have informed and influenced our ongoing work with the ToS, and our overall approach to Trust & Safety.

We were not the only social platform in contact with the EU about DSA compliance around that time. In fact, the EU Commission levied a €120 million fine on Elon Musk’s X platform for its misleading verification system and overall lack of transparency. In contrast, Mastodon works closely with local governments to ensure that we are good citizens, take good care of people who use our service, and remain in compliance with local laws. For a deeper look at that incident and our mission, read Hannah Aubry’s post: The World Needs Social Sovereignty.

In December 2026, we will be updating these User ToSs again to incorporate dedicated Service Rules and Digital Services Act (DSA) information. This ensures our legal compliance with EU regulations while giving our community complete transparency. It will clearly outline our acceptable use guidelines, explain how to report illegal content, and spell out our content moderation and appeal processes. We will share a separate blog post previewing those December additions in the next couple of weeks, giving everyone ample lead time to review changes.

Additionally, we are working on ToS for customers of our commercial services.

Thank you

Finally, we want to share a special thank you to the people who helped us reach this milestone. Our deepest gratitude to Neil Brown, our law firm Jones Day, Cory Doctorow, the EFF team, and all the community members who shared their feedback on the first version of the new ToS with us.