Untitled attachment

Notices where this attachment appears

1. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 02-Apr-2026 22:31:44 JST Aral Balkan

   Folks, this is a general Gaza Verified message.

   Please note that while we know the unconscionable situation people in Gaza are having to go through, we are also seeing a rise (from a small number of people) of massing tagging of people in messages and unsolicited direct messages.

   To our friends and families in Gaza Verified: this is against the rules of almost every server, including the one your account is on and it will get your account limited or suspended. It is also against our rules (see https://gaza-verified.org/guide/ or, in Palestinian Arabic: https://gaza-verified.org/guide-arabic/) as we don’t want your accounts to get limited/suspended.

   If your account is suspended by your server for no reason or as discrimination for who you are, we will challenge that and, if necessary, help you find a new server (see our friendly servers list in the guide).

   And we have also worked with some of you to help explain the rules and advocate on your behalf when your accounts were suspended for mass tagging or unsolicited direct messages.

   However, with a small number of accounts, we have seen the same behaviour continue the moment the account is reinstated.

   In such situations, we cannot help you further. And we will not verify any new accounts you create to avoid these suspensions.

   The goal of Gaza Verified from the start was to ensure that Mastodon and the fediverse was a safe space for our Palestinian friends and, with the help of many server admins, I believe we have, for the most part, succeeded in creating a space where Palestinians are respected and valued. But this is a two-way street. It is also important to that the people here who care and want to help are not constantly subjected to directed messages imploring them to help. Many of those who help are not well off themselves and they help when and how they can.

   The best thing about Mastodon and the fediverse is that it is a place where you can build genuine friendships. Everything else will flow from this.

   So I beg our friends in Gaza to see the long-term value of being part of a community that cares and hopefully talking to one another and helping ensure that a very small number of accounts doesn’t jeopardise that for everyone for short-term gain.

   To our friends and families in Gaza, I do not presume to tell you how to use Mastodon or the fediverse but here are some of my thoughts based on what I’ve seen in the past half-year of Gaza Verified’s existence:

   1. Please don’t see this as a competition with each other. We all know that everyone who is in Gaza needs help.
   2. Please try and make genuine connections with people here. Share your everyday experiences. People will follow you and they will engage with you. And from that, some of them will no doubt also help you.
   3. Please don’t target messages that try to guilt people who have helped in the past to help again. If they can help, they will. Please remember that they may not be in the best financial situation either.

   For those of you reading who want to know how they can help, there are two main ways:

   1. Check out the list of Gaza Verified accounts at https://gaza-verified.org/donate (ranked by those who raised the least in the past week
   2. Perhaps pick someone and try and organise monthly patronages for them so they can have a certain amount of money coming in every month (call it a universal basic income, if you will, or crowdfunded income redistribution, etc.) so they can pay their rent and/or basic necessities. We just successfully did that for Aseel, one of our Gaza Verified team members, where 17 patrons, including me, are paying her family’s rent. If there was more of this, there would be less need for these families, who are facing genocide and famine, to keep asking for donations.

2. Embed this notice
   casey (casey@kafeneio.social)'s status on Sunday, 01-Mar-2026 07:19:02 JST casey

   RE: https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116007580009927087

   For all of our Gaza Verified families, we kindly ask that you please carefully read and follow the rules for Gaza Verified. We’ve been getting a lot of messages that people’s accounts have been suspended, and that’s likely because accounts are being reported for spam-like behavior. We want to support you as best we can, but in order to do that we need you to keep the integrity of our efforts by following the stated rules.

   You can find everything you need to know here: https://gaza-verified.org/guide-arabic/

3. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 15-Nov-2025 19:01:03 JST Aral Balkan

   in reply to

   @millerebonds @fabio @casey @duchesse @thoboumon @raphaellakay @AnnaLion @delsaulnier @gomli @Enfanthese I just checked: He’s signed up for verification using his framapiaf account so everything is ok. We will be taking to him on Monday.

   PS. In case he hasn’t seen them, the Gaza Verified rules are at: https://gaza-verified.org/guide-arabic/ (a good link to make sure folks are aware of to avoid getting their accounts limited/suspended on any Mastodon server, including the friendly ones).

4. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 24-Sep-2025 21:46:03 JST Aral Balkan

   in reply to

   @saeedfromgazaa Hi Saeed,

   @joynewacc and I would love to have a quick video call with you on Signal Messenger so we can welcome you to the Gaza Verified family.

   Please see our guide at https://gaza-verified.org/guide-arabic/ for how to download Signal Messenger and how everything works.

   Please add me on Signal and send me a message so we can schedule the call. We still have space for tomorrow.

   My Signal account is aral.42

   Thank you and lots of love and solidarity to you and your family.

   💕

5. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Monday, 22-Sep-2025 19:38:22 JST Aral Balkan

   in reply to

   @M0YNG They’re not part of Gaza Verified yet. I’ve reached out to schedule a call with them and sent them a link to our guide (https://gaza-verified.org/guide/), well, to the Arabic version (https://gaza-verified.org/guide-arabic/).

6. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 12-Sep-2025 18:31:16 JST Aral Balkan

   Good morning everyone.

   One million people are facing imminent death and destruction at the hands of Israel in Gaza.

   Israel has issued evacuation orders for one million people. These are people who have been displaced over and over again in Israel’s ongoing genocide. They have nowhere left to go. To move South costs on average $5,000 to rent land, a tent, and sanitation due to war-time profiteering. That’s if they can get someone outside of Palestine to host their fundraiser and if they can keep their social media accounts from being shut down by mainstream Big Tech platforms and after paying half the donation amount or more in commission while withdrawing the funds that are sent to them.

   Things are desperate.

   Mastodon and the fediverse are the last lifeline for people from Gaza. It’s their last chance of reaching us in the outside world so that we might help them survive the genocide and famine being wrought out by Israel.

   @joynewacc and I are having video conversations with people from Gaza who have Mastodon accounts every day to verify them in hopes that this will help them raise funds to live.

   You can find the verified accounts on Gaza Verified:

   https://gaza-verified.org

   I hope you will follow them on the fediverse, perhaps send them a few words of love and solidarity so they know they’re not alone but that there are some of us that see, hear, love and support them.

   And, if you can, please support their fundraisers, boost their posts, and share their accounts.

   Thank you in advance for making our friends from Gaza who are facing unspeakable horrors welcome on the fediverse and for showing that humanity is not entirely dead in the rest of the world.

   💕

   PS. Please note that many Palestinians use automated translation tools, including AI-based ones so you might notice issues with translation or even transliteration (so, for example, a name is written Eman in one place but Iman in another). Also, not everyone is social media or technically savvy. These are everyday people trying to survive a genocide and a famine so please understand that there might be issues with the accounts. That doesn’t mean that they’re not genuine. If you have any concerns, you can talk to me. (Furthermore, there are concerted efforts by some groups to spread FUD about Palestinian accounts with the goal of getting them all shut down. If you notice any such behaviour, please also alert me. To server admins: closing their accounts is tantamount to handing out a death sentence. We’re here to help if you need it.)

   PPS. If you know of any people from Gaza with Mastodon accounts who are not on Gaza Verified, please tell them about it. You can give them a link to https://gaza-verified.org/guide-arabic/ with further information. The guide also includes a list of Mastodon servers whose admins have publicly stated that their servers are safe spaces for Palestinians to open accounts so please feel free to share that with people from Gaza who are having their accounts closed on Bluesky and elsewhere. You can find the English version of the guide here: https://gaza-verified.org/guide/

   #Gaza #Palestine #fediverse #Mastodon