SummaryThis year’s report reflects responses from over 400 ActivityPub communities hosting about a third of all known ActivityPub accounts, as well as responses from ATProto operators and legacy platforms. 29% of participating communities are Mastodon services, 58 distinct platforms reporting in all, with most respondents active across multiple platforms.
The findings paint a picture of an ecosystem at a critical juncture. While operator domain expertise is higher than ever, the overall network continues to grow while volunteer capacity is stretched thin and confronting rapidly-escalating agentic spam, state-sponsored influence operations, and fast-moving global Internet regulations.###
What’s Inside the Report<li><strong>Platforms:</strong> Examines ecosystem distribution across 58 distinct social web platforms (led by Mastodon, Matrix, and PeerTube). Details include instance hosting scale, showing that 87% of all known ActivityPub nodes host under 10 accounts, while 30 large instances serve nearly 80% of active members.<br></li><li><strong>Roles:</strong> Explores operational multi-tasking, highlighting that 65% of operators wear multiple hats combining sysadmin, content moderation, community management, and compliance. Analyses operator tenure and onboarding, revealing a growing veteran shift alongside a steep decline in new incoming moderators/admins.<br></li><li><strong>Business and Legal:</strong> Maps physical operator locations vs. server hosting infrastructure. Breaks down entity registration, legal notice volume, and a troubling legal exposure gap: nearly 80% of nodes operate with zero liability insurance despite facing DMCA claims, GDPR requests, and law enforcement demands.<br></li><li><strong>Sustainability:</strong> Focusses on node economics, funding mechanisms, and total server costs.<br></li><li><strong>Tools and Policies:</strong> Reviews formal governance structures and evaluates shared denylist usage and off-platform team coordination.<br></li><li><strong>Individual Experience:</strong> Explores frontline operator well-being, workload predictability, and mental health.<br></li><li><strong>IFTAS Impact Assessment:</strong> Evaluates the perceived value and utility of IFTAS resources, advocacy, and tooling across the participant cohort.<br></li><li><strong>Key Concerns:</strong> Operational pressure points such as the 260% surge in coordinated FIMI networks, agentic spam botnets, and rising instance shutdowns due to operator fatigue.<br></li><li><strong>Looking Ahead:</strong> Our forecast for 2027, including the shift toward smaller, community-focused digital spaces, regulatory threats, and the likely transition toward proactive and/or delegated moderation services.</li>###
Executive Summary<li>The Social Web relies heavily on small, independent communities, with the vast majority of observed nodes hosting fewer than 1,000 active accounts, almost all operating purely on volunteer, unfunded labor.<br></li><li>Operator multi-tasking remains critical: 45% of admins handle three or more distinct operational roles (system administration, content moderation, compliance, technical support) with minimal assistance, managing a collective 20 million accounts globally.<br></li><li>Automated spam campaigns and LLM/GenAI agents have surpassed traditional moderation challenges and are now the primary daily operational drain.<br></li><li>Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) campaigns and coordinated disinformation networks are forcing instances into reactive positions.<br></li><li>Complex cross-jurisdictional rules (e.g., EU DSA, UK OSA, US Take It Down Act) create severe legal uncertainty for small operators who lack formal compliance teams or legal counsel.</li>###
Strategic Imperatives for the Social Web<li><strong>Interoperable Threat Intelligence:</strong> Platforms require automated, cross-node signals to filter malicious traffic prior to manual review.<br></li><li><strong>Automated Protection:</strong> Machine-assisted triage and automated threat-detection tools are essential to shield volunteer operators from industrialised spam and GenAI-generated campaigns.<br></li><li><strong>Plug-and-Play Policy Frameworks:</strong> Adoption of modular, plug-and-play server rules, moderation guidelines, and legal compliance templates will reduce friction for independent operators.<br></li><li><strong>Plain-Language Regulatory Guidance:</strong> Establishing accessible, plain-language guidance can bridge the gap between statutory mandates and non-commercial platform capabilities.<br></li><li><strong>Sustainability & Operator Care:</strong> Peer support structures, trauma-informed moderation practices, and shared workload models are vital to prevent volunteer burnout and stabilise operator retention across the ecosystem.</li>###
Needs AssessmentWhen asking operators to stack-rank their immediate priorities, legal compliance documentation skyrocketed in demand, while spam and disinformation tools dominated technical requirements.####
Resource Needs:Legal templates jumps 5 spots from #6 last year. Operators have moved from general regulatory awareness to needing concrete documentation for their infrastructure. Compliance & governance remain the top 3 priorities across both years.<tbody><tr><td>1 <strong>↑</strong> (6)</td><td>Template legalese (ToS, privacy policy etc)</td></tr><tr><td>2 <strong>↓</strong> (1)</td><td>Regulatory guidance (GDPR, OSA etc)</td></tr><tr><td>3 <strong>↓</strong> (2)</td><td>Moderation Playbooks & Best Practices</td></tr><tr><td>4 <strong>↓</strong> (3)</td><td>Shared denylists / allowlists</td></tr><tr><td>5 <strong>↓</strong> (4)</td><td>Template community code of conduct</td></tr><tr><td>6 <strong>↓</strong> (5)</td><td>Help responding to content takedowns, law enforcement, legal notices</td></tr><tr><td>7 <strong>→</strong> (7)</td><td>Moderator training courses</td></tr><tr><td>8 <strong>→</strong> (8)</td><td>Moderator wellbeing resources</td></tr><tr><td>9 <strong>↑</strong> (10)</td><td>Help with business formation</td></tr><tr><td>10 <strong>↓</strong> (9)</td><td>Resources in languages other than English</td></tr></tbody>####
Tooling Needs:Spam detection remains the single most critical tooling need, staying at #1. Disinformation detection catapulted 5 positions from #7 to #2, reflecting heightened concern over elections, synthetic media, and coordinated influence campaigns. CSAM detection remains high-priority, sliding slightly from last year.<tbody><tr><td>1 <strong>→</strong> (1)</td><td>Spam detection</td></tr><tr><td>2 <strong>↑</strong> (7)</td><td>Disinformation detection</td></tr><tr><td>3 <strong>↓</strong> (2)</td><td>CSAM detection</td></tr><tr><td>4 <strong>↓</strong> (3)</td><td>Toxic / spam IP & Email Domain data</td></tr><tr><td>5 <strong>→</strong> (5)</td><td>Phishing and malware detection</td></tr><tr><td>6 <strong>↓</strong> (4)</td><td>Hate speech detection</td></tr><tr><td>7 <strong>↓</strong> (6)</td><td>Non-consensual intimate image detection</td></tr><tr><td>8 <strong>→</strong> (8)</td><td>Personal digital safety tools</td></tr><tr><td>9 <strong>↑</strong> (10)</td><td>Registered agent / point of contact service</td></tr><tr><td>10 <strong>↓</strong> (9)</td><td>Terroristic and violent extremism detection</td></tr></tbody>###
Individual Experience: Personal Well-beingWhen asked “*Have you personally experienced burnout or mental health challenges due to your community responsibilities in the past 12 months?*” over a quarter of operators report feeling close to burnout / overwhelmed in the past 12 months. 14% have faced full burnout within the year, underscoring that managing communities carries a measurable emotional toll.###
Get Involved & Support the WorkIf you’d like a one-on-one briefing, or have any questions about the survey data, please email contact@iftas.org<li><a href="https://about.iftas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2026-IFTAS-Social-Web-Operations-and-Needs-Assessment-Report.pdf">Download the Full Report</a></li><li><a href="https://about.iftas.org/trust-safety-services/iftas-community-library/">Explore IFTAS Resources</a></li><li><a href="https://about.iftas.org/donate/">Sustain Our Work</a></li>
