Guide
I don’t have a Mastodon account… how can I get one?
There are thousands of Mastodon servers run by different people and groups. It’s important, especially if you’re from Gaza, to find one that is sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people.
Here are a few servers that have publicly stated that they welcome and provide a safe space for Palestinians.
Please set up an account on one of them:
- mastodon.calitabby.net (reference)
- ieji.de (reference)
- mastodon.tn (reference)
- kafeneio.social (reference)
- metroholografix.ca (reference)
- mastodon.design (reference)
- freesewing.social (reference)
- mastodon.scot (reference)
- mastodon.world (reference)
- tuiter.rocks (reference)
- hachyderm.io (reference)
- autonomous.zone (reference)
- mas.to (reference)
I’m from Gaza and I have a Mastodon account. How can I join Gaza Verified?
Follow the instructions on our Join us! page.
What are the verification criteria?
Very few:
You are a Palestinian in Gaza or you are a Palestinian from Gaza.
You have one (and only one) Mastodon account. If you don’t already have one, please create one now.
Your profile accurately represents where you and your family live (in Gaza, in Egypt, etc.) It is acceptable if you are from Gaza but live in Egypt, for example, but it is not acceptable to state that you live in Gaza when you live in Egypt.
You do not not send automated/scripted messages (i.e., exhibit bot-like behaviour).
You do not manually send lots of similar public messages tagging different people or ask for donations through private messages.
Rules 2, 4, and 5 are to prevent your account from being reported to server administrators (admins) as a scam or spam and subsequently being suspended.
Beyond the rules, do you have any suggestions to avoid getting my account flagged when posting on Mastodon?
If you copy a post from someone else, please give them credit with a link back to their original post. This will stop people from saying that your account is fake because you’re copying content from elsewhere.
Do not use template posts you might find online. It is better to write your own posts and translate them to English.
Share your own experiences and reality.
Read what people say to you and, if you can, reply to the supportive messages.
If anyone is harassing or abusing you, please do not engage. Report them using Mastodon’s reporting feature. Also, you can report them to Aral in a direct message.
Try, if possible, to make sure that the name(s) on your Mastodon account appear exactly as written on your fundraising page (or at least that the same names are mentioned). And for those of you looking at these accounts, please understand that the fundraisers are usually for families, that they are hosted by people outside of Palestine (as Palestinians cannot host them themselves), and that most Palestinians use automated, sometimes AI-based, translation that can transliterate names differently.
What does the verification process look like?
It’s very simple: we have a quick video chat to verify that you are a Palestinian from Gaza and the same person you say you are on your Mastodon account, after which we add you to Gaza Verified.