THE DILEMMA
Almost everyone is fed up with social media in its current form. It locks you in with all the surveillance, the algorithms, the ads and finally now the AI slop, while still making their libertarian right wing billionaire owners tons of money and giving fascist governments like the current American regime way too much power. Most people you talk to would agree on this, but still the punk and DIY scene seems to be stuck on the big tech platforms like everyone else and no one really seems to know what to do about it.
Most punks still connect over Instagram - all the bands, labels and posters are on there (some proto-millenials, gen-xers and boomers use Facebook lol) and even organizing shows mostly happens over Instagram. The trend seems to be going towards Telegram, which is just another surveillance social media platform disguised as a secure (it is not) chat software owned by just another libertarian tech bro and like most corporate services it is ultimately also only gonna get worse. Maybe you noticed the crypto advertisements in channels that started to pop up recently? Bluesky is another medium that got a lot of attention, which is unfortunately bound to the same fate as it is also (surprise!) owned by a group of crypto bros and advertised under the false banner of "decentralization".
I am not here to shame anyone for using these platforms, there are absolutely valid reasons to be on them, but there are alternatives out there. In real life we are building DIY communities and networks ourselves and are trying to oppose capitalism and surveillance, why dont we start doing it on the internet again? We maybe dont have to go back to forums (even though forums were and are great) or go as far as removing social media from our lives altogether.
DIY SOCIAL MEDIA
There is at least one good solution to this dilemma: the fediverse. The name might sound a bit corny, but behind it is a DIY network of free and open software that tries to give the power of social media back to the people. Fediverse is a wordplay on "Federated Universe" and describes a collection of decentralized social networking services that can communicate with each other. It is totally anti-corporate and DIY in its spirit, which makes it a seemingly perfect fit for punks, even though the concept and the technical details might be a bit harder to grasp at first.
You might have heard of these services: Mastodon is an alternative to Twitter (aka X lol) and Pixelfed is an alternative to Instagram - and there are many more like Lemmy for Reddit and Peertube for Youtube. All the software behind these platforms is developed by independent developers, who are mostly dedicated volunteers and are not controlled by one company. Also: no surveillance, no ads and no algorithms. All of these platforms are open source, which means everyone (theroetically, if you are a nerd) can grab a copy of the code and set up their own web servers, also referred to as instances, which each host their own community. For those who do not know what a server is: for now just think of it as a computer in a data center running a website or a social media platform, so imagine each server or instance as their own little Facebook or Instagram. The owners and administrators of these instances are are often members of the community themselves and they define the rules for their instance and who gets to join it.
And now the best part: each instance can communicate with the others. Meaning if you signed up for one community, you will still be able to interact with users on another one and in most cases you won't even notice that you are on another instance or even platform, because even the different platforms (!) are connected. This literally means if you want you can follow people on Pixelfed with a Mastodon account or vice versa - imagine following someone on Twitter via Instagram.
The way this works on the technical side can be best compared to e-mail. The analogy: there are many e-mail providers out there like mailbox.org, gmail, and web.de. I can sign up for mailbox.org (which functions basically as a server or instance), while you can sign up for gmail and yet we are still able to send each other messages.
Don't worry: most people do not have the technical knowledge or the time and capacity of hosting a server with an instance themselves, but there are countless enthusiastic computer people out there doing that for you, so you can just choose one and join.
Also, the fediverse prevents lock-in. One of the reasons why Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have gotten so big and no one feels like they can leave is because you have to join it before you can participate or even see stuff and if you decide to leave, you lose all your data, your posts and your followers and connections (this is where Bluesky is the same btw). On the fediverse you can just take it all to another instance.
So to put in easier words: The fediverse is a network of independently hosted little online communities that are all connected to each other, like thousands of little DIY Facebooks and Instagrams where you can join at any point and follow anyone anywhere else. This all means there is no single company or group owning and having power of the whole thing, so the platforms can not be shut down or somehow be made worse all at once after they are established. It is a truly decentralized or "federated" DIY network owned and governed by the people who run and participate in it.
THE NETWORK EFFECT AND OTHER PROBLEMS
All of this of course comes with its own problems and downsides. The biggest one: The network effect. All of your friends, your bands, your labels, your collectives and your crushes are on big tech social media and no one (not true) is on the fediverse. This is always a challenge as the only way to get people over to another network is if people they care for are on there already. You might know this from convincing someone to use another messenging app (like Signal when they are still on Whatsapp like your mum and dad or your hinge date), but here it is even harder, because everyone has to build up their profile with all the connections and posts once again almost completely from scratch.
The second problem is: the fediverse is not as easy and not as convenient as corporate social media. First of all people need to understand the concept, then they need to decide which platform to join and then find an instance and then maybe even wait to be approved by an admin (which is a good thing, because AdolfLover88 will probably not be able to join your instance). Also, most of it is still in development and might have a few bugs and not so many features, as the developers dont have millions of dollars behind them and are mostly working as volunteers. But even under these circumstances it is impressive what is out there already and you might even be surprised how well it works. Pixelfed for example is mostly developed by a single person, which is absolutely insane since Instagram has a team of more than 20.000 people working worldwide and still is making the experience worse by the minute.
The third "problem", which is actually by design, is both a feature and a bug: There are no algorithms that control your feed, which makes for a super clean - and way healthier experience - but it also means finding accounts to follow is quite a bit harder. You wont get them suggested easily and you have to actually dig in to find whats interesting to you, so if you do not have a place to start, the platforms may seem empty or uninteresting at first - it all feels a bit like the very early days of Facebook or Instagram, that are now somehow hard to remember (if you are old enough for that anyways). But in the end that also means that connections are way more meaningful and engaging.
There are not a lot of punk and music things going on yet, as mostly only leftist computer nerds (including a large tech-adjacent trans community!) made the switch so far, but more and more folks are joining. Especially for news and political topics Mastodon is already amazing and discussions there are way more thoughtful and supportive in comparison to most other parts of the internet. Most of the people on there right now are leftist, antifascist and/or queer or from other marginalized communities.
All of these problems are real challenges, but I think its in the nature of punk and the DIY spirit to work together and take matters in our own hands and I hope it will somehow be possible to overcome these. Like with most matters this will only happen if we collectively put in some work.
WHERE TO START
So how do you join? Choose a platform, find an instance, make an account, put your stuff out there, find people to follow and connect to. Bring the discussion to your collective and your friends and maybe even start an instance with your own community if you are a nerd. Basically, be the reason for someone else to be on the fediverse.
If you like Bluesky or used to like Twitter/Facebook, check out Mastodon:
https://joinmastodon.org/
If you like(d) Instagram, check out Pixelfed:
https://pixelfed.org/
Here is a little list with instances you could join:
https://punkstodon.de - Mastodon instance from Berlin
https://punk.photos - Pixelfed instance from Berlin
https://counterforce.social – Mastodon instance for (hardcore) punks
https://kolektiva.social - Mastodon anarchists server
https://autonomous.zone – Mastodon instance for european anarchists
For a guide in German check out our friends website, they are hosting the two recommended Berlin instances (they also have an English and Spanish guide):
https://punx.social
Theres also https://fedi.punk.guide/, which lists all the punk and DIY-related accounts in the fediverse.
You can also check the guide from the The Counter-Force, a hardcore punk webzine from Montreal:
https://the-counterforce.org/guide-to-mastodon-fediverse/
And if you want to learn even more or find other alternatives to your favorite big tech platforms you can check out: https://fediverse.info/ or https://fedi.tips/ or one of the other countless websites helping you to find a place to start if you search for them.
There are not that many punks out there yet, but I seriously hope this will change. Let us fight big tech together and escape the hellhole that corporate social media has become.
BERLIN.ASKAPUNK.DE
Another place to start If you live in Berlin or are visiting: you might want to follow our calendar feed in the fediverse. Just click https://punkstodon.de/@relay@berlin.askapunk.de. The calendar is based on Gancio, which is one of the countless fediverse platforms. You can also follow https://punkstodon.de/@askapunk for updates regarding the calendar itself.
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written by kneelz (@kneelz@mas.to, @halts_maulwurf@pixelfed.social) - 01/2026
This article exists as a printable zine (contact kneelz for the print version).