@aprehendedmerlin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Running my own fediverse instance for the people who need it the most
2026-06-23 00:17 UTC
Replies (8)
-
@luthis@lemmy.nz 2026-06-23 03:45
I know there are quite a few comments already, so I hope you read mine. Bro, be fucking careful. Really understand what you’re implementing. Tbh in a small community, I would use snikket or something like that. But under authoritarian tyranny, you need to be sure you and your users cannot be tracked.
-
@DeuxChevaux@lemmy.world 2026-06-23 05:11
If it was me, I would not run Lemmy/Piefed in your situation. These things are designed to be fully open and visible to anyone who want to look at them. Probably not your use case. I’d rather look at something like a Matrix instance, where you can have encryption and secrecy built in. Also, you say that you’re a noob in these things. If you want to hide from the government, you really do need someone very experienced to help you with security, or else it won’t end well. All the best!
-
@ozoned@piefed.social 2026-06-23 00:29
You absolutely can run Fediverse software yourself. That’s how the internet was created and we have you claw it back from big Tech. First you should figure out what you want to run. For a few folks and basic microblogging, GoToSocial is super easy to set up, but it’s limited. Bonfire is an amazing fediverse app and it’s getting better everyday. They’re trying to make it a platform for communities and it’s very extensible. Emissary is also amazing platform for fediverse stuff and then there’s HTML and CSS editor to really build what you want from there. Like bonfire, but you have to really create the site you want. If you want reddit style, I like piefed over Lemmy. Forums with fediverse? Nodebb. Pictures only? Pixelfed Live streams? Owncast Hosting videos? Peertube And it all interconnects. So you could run Bonfire, and follow someone on Peertube and comment and like from Bonfire. It’s overwhelming. Id suggest write down what you’re wanting and then look at each project and see what fits. I run my own bonfire at btfree.social and a public peertube at tubefree.org. Happy to help however I can. I’ve done some install videos and going to do more soon.
-
@Fizz@lemmy.nz 2026-06-23 01:49
IMO its best to keep everything illegal to word of mouth you dont want to leave any traces. Hosting an online fedi platform would be putting up a beacon leading back to you with a paper trail of all people involved.
-
@Auster@thebrainbin.org 2026-06-23 01:21
You'd be putting your life on the line, so a suggestion if you go through with this idea: Have someone you can entrust the site to that wouldn't be targeted by the regime (at least immediately, maybe a foreigner?) in case you go MIA, or someone "suicides" you. Also, hosting an anti-dictatorship platform fully within the borders the dictatorship controls means it could easily hunt down those hosting it. They wouldn't need to pick leaves one by one if they chop the whole tree down, in an analogy. From what I follow of news about Iran, its regime appears to be more immediately an enemy of the US, Israel, Lebanon and Russia, and the EU governments appear to be shifting to be openly against it, so maybe worth looking for VPS providers aligned with those countries, I'd think. Also, people often use Telegram, but internet being cut makes it somewhat unreliable. Alternatively, what P2P or other portable relay technologies are there, so that even if the origin of the network disappears or internet is cut, it keeps floating around? I can only think of amateur radio broadcast, similar to how Poles did in the Iron Curtain time, but similarly to there back then, you'd need to be on the run after each short broadcast, so you're not easily found.
-
@wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-06-23 00:45
Depending on the legality and safety of doing so, you may also want to look into tech for avoiding censorship and oppresive regimes. Things like TOR, running your own DNS server, etc. Edit: I didn’t want to just leave this vague, so I looked up the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Surveillance Self-Defense guide hoping for some better specifics, but unfortunately it looks like it’s mainly about making security plans, understanding your risk profile, using secure settings on your personal devices, using signal, using TOR, and selecting “the VPN that’s right for you”. Like you really have a choice of “the VPN right for you” when they shut down things to only approved in/out IPs. There might be useful info there, but it wasn’t quite what I was hoping to point you at, sorry. Considering the risks involved with hosting something like this, I would probably start with research on how you could host this safely/anonymously. That would be my first priority. Can’t help people if they take you out. Next step would be looking at piefed/Lemmy or whatever systems you’re thinking about hosting and identifying what features/logs/etc you would need to disable, modify, or set up to clear themselves automatically so that you wouldn’t have information worth going after in the first place.
-
@kudra@sh.itjust.works 2026-06-23 01:03
good start! but when internet gets turned off, anything using tcp/ip stops. look for coop cloud, Reticulum, LoRa radios if you can get them. you can build your OWN local area internet to communicate with your friends.
-
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2026-06-23 03:00
There are also mesh systems that are worth looking into, if it’s possible to get access to the hardware for communication that is potentially harder for the government to track.