Notices by christian holt (christianholt@mastodon.social)

@darnell @eff It sounds like you’re really describing a business liability policy; I’m sure EFF would love to support instance admins, but I don’t think they’re in the business of selling insurance.
If the goal is to create an online community analogous to a social club, it might make sense to treat instances that way. For example, SDF.org operates as a nonprofit social club (with a mastodon instance) and is organized that way as a corporate entity and for tax purposes.

@darnell @eff If you ran a private social club out of your house as an individual, you would still have exposure if a member of the club used club resources and caused an injury to another party.
By thinking of a mastodon instance as an entity that takes some form, whether individual, an unincorporated association, or an incorporated entity, that may help to identify what exposure each server admin has and how to protect from that risk. (Not legal advice, etc.)

@darnell @eff The bottom line is you can’t set up an organization with members and expect the law not to treat you like one. If someone felt that a member of your instance had defamed them, they could sue you or the member and drag you into court to conduct discovery.
It’s possible that Section 230 might shield you from paying damages, but you’d still have to hire your own lawyer to defend you from something one of your members did. An insurance policy would probably cover that.

@darnell @eff These are general considerations outside of my expertise and someone with experience in the liability and tax implications of online communities should weigh in. Laws differ from country to country and (in the US) state to state.
But to evaluate what risk you’re comfortable with - I think it’s fair to extend the analogy of a Mastodon instance to an email server. If you ran an email server and offered accounts to people, what would you do to stay out of trouble?