Open Source Social Networks and Account Cloning

Post n° 3

I'm writing this article as a reminder that if you create an account (or profile) on an open-source social network (such as Mastodon or Pixelfed), you'll be creating cloned accounts on other sites... Understanding the (subtle) workings of open-source social networks is certainly different from what they make you believe... The fact is that I'm still finding (even now) a previous account of mine (created on Pixelfed and then deleted by Pixelfed itself after a few months) on a site I'm not a member of and whose existence I had no idea existed...

I was already aware of this problem because, in the past, I had created some accounts on Mastodon, only to find that my account was being replicated on sites I didn't know about, sites I had no control over and/or management... This shows how, in reality, open-source social networks are on the same level (if not worse) than closed-source ones: while closed-source social networks sell your data to Third-party companies, open-source social networks "smear" your account across the Internet (creating multiple clones of your entire account...), copies that—what's more—you can't manage. It's also unknown whether these third-party pseudo-social networks generate "under-the-radar" advertising revenue, as each social network could be managed differently, and since they carry different names from the social networks a user is registered with, the user themselves (unfortunately) is completely unaware of their existence. This could also be a trick to keep certain open-source social networks active, potentially generating money in a "chain letter" style.

Published: Tuesday, April 21, 2026