The use of social networks offers numerous challenges under data protection law. According to a ruling by the European Court of Justice, public institutions that have a social media page on Instagram, Facebook, etc. are jointly responsible with the provider for its processing of personal data.
The Studierendenwerk has therefore decided to offer Mastodon, a data protection compliant alternative. The microblogging platform is similar to Twitter in its functionality. Short messages that are called “tweets” on Twitter are called “toots” on Mastodon. The maximum length of a message is 500 characters. Pictures and videos can also be shown here. You can address other users directly with an @ sign and tag content with hashtags (#). The platform is decentralised – in principle like an email service: anyone can operate their own instance or join an existing instance. Communication is possible across the boundaries of the instances.
Mastodon belongs to the decentralised, fediverse networks. The my-stuwe account is stored on the server of the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Information Security.
It can be accessed under the following link: