The digital covenant: non-centralized platform governance on the mastodon social network

The majority of scholarship on platform governance focuses on for-profit, corporate social media with highly centralized network structures. Instead, we show how non-centralized platform governance functions in the Mastodon social network. Through an analysis of survey data, Github and Discourse developer discussions, Mastodon Codes of Conduct, and participant observations, we argue Mastodon's platform governance is an exemplar of the covenant, a key concept from federalist political theory. We contrast Mastodon's covenantal federalism platform governance with the contractual form used by corporate social media. We also use covenantal federalist theory to explain how Mastodon's users, administrators, and developers justify revoking or denying membership in the federation. In doing so, this study sheds new light on the innovations in platform governance that go beyond the corporate/alt-right platform dichotomy.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the non-centralized platform governance in the Mastodon social network, demonstrating how it differs from the contractual form used by corporate social media. It explores how users, administrators, and developers make decisions in governance through covenantal federalist theory.