Are you looking for the StartHereSocial Domain Picker?
Find Fediverse communities by country, region, and language
A map and data directory showcasing Open Social Web / ActivityPub service providers, each catering to a certain locality or offering specific language support.
Map
The interactive map is available on uMap. A proof-of-concept domain picker is available at StartHereSocial.
Purpose
Language Equity
Digital language inclusion is fundamental to equitable participation in social media networks. These platforms often serve as vital spaces for communities that have historically been excluded from mainstream digital discourse.
By ensuring that users can engage in their native or preferred languages, moderators and administrators support broader civic participation, self-expression, and access to critical information.
Language inclusion not only helps preserve cultural identity, but also fosters a sense of belonging and mutual respect in diverse online communities. In federated networks, which are typically volunteer-managed, language inclusivity also serves as a safeguard against homogenisation and marginalisation. The decentralised structure allows for tailored moderation and community norms, but this flexibility must be underpinned by an intentional commitment to linguistic diversity.
Without proactive measures, users who speak minority or indigenous languages may face barriers to engagement, leading to their exclusion or silencing. This, in turn, can exacerbate existing social inequities, both online and offline, particularly for marginalised groups.
Furthermore, digital language inclusion supports trust and safety objectives. When users can communicate and receive moderation messages in languages they understand, the likelihood of respectful dialogue and compliance with community guidelines increases. Clear, comprehensible communication reduces the risk of misinterpretation, conflict, and harm. It also helps build trust between users and moderators, especially in cross-cultural contexts.
Community
Region or country-focussed servers play a crucial role in fostering digital environments that reflect the specific cultural, political, and social contexts of their communities.
In federated social media, localisation allows users to engage with peers who share common regional experiences and concerns. This alignment supports better contextual understanding of speech norms, and the amplification of local voices often overlooked on global platforms.
Regional servers can also serve as hubs for civic discourse, activism, and community support, making them vital for democratic engagement and cultural preservation. Regionally grounded servers contribute to global decentralised networks by offering unique perspectives and practices that enrich the broader Fediverse.
Their success demonstrates the potential for community-led governance tailored to specific needs, strengthening the overall resilience of federated systems. Emphasising regional inclusion ensures that the federation does not become dominated by a few well-resourced nodes, but instead thrives as a genuinely pluralistic and democratic digital space.
Inclusion Criteria
- A federating social networking service
- Open for registration (including approval required)
- Clearly demonstrated intent to serve
- (i) a particular facility (e.g. a university), neighbourhood, city, region or country; or
- (ii) a specific language or family of languages that can generally be thought of as being constrained to a particular locale or region or are minority / underserved / endangered languages
- Discernibly well-moderated
- HTTPS only
- Over 50 active members (hyper-local servers may have fewer MAU)
Exclusion Criteria
- Any server that clearly and overtly contravenes the Mastodon Server Covenant (public signing of the Mastodon Server Covenant is not required for inclusion),
- Any server that is consistently unreachable.
Contributing
Additions: CryptPad Form
Removals/Corrections: Message @jaz@toot.wales
Data
Choosing any filter will automatically reduce the available options in the other filters. Select the reset button to start over if your filters are not showing results.
Data is available subject to the Open Database License.
Other Directories
Many servers are based on a particular topic, language or area, and some are more general. Here are some other lists of servers you can explore:
- https://joinmastodon.org/
- https://fedi.garden/
- https://fediverse.party/en/portal/servers
- https://masto.town/
- https://mastodon.help/instances/en
Thanks
The following people contributed feedback and links for this directory and the associated map:
- https://the.vermonters.club/@scully
- https://austin.community/@shane
- https://mastodon.scot/@Jkp
- https://qoto.org/@zleap
- https://mastodon.xyz/@lightone
- https://mastodon.org.uk/@xvilo
- https://nrw.social/@dbeaver
- https://tooting.ch/@tursiops
- https://mas.to/@rodti
- https://mastodon.uno/@filippodb
- https://xarxa.cloud/@t3rr0rz0n3
- https://mastodon.lazysquirrel.co.uk/@bumblebee
- https://darmstadt.social/@w4tsn
- https://nerdica.net/profile/ij
- https://pleroma.pt/@lisbonjoker
- https://mastodon.fedi.bzh/@ewen
- https://mastodon.gougere.fr/@papaeng89
- https://immermusik.de/@thomas
- https://indieweb.social/@tchambers
- https://en.osm.town/@karlos
- https://gnubox.org/users/stereo
- https://expired.mentality.rip/users/zudlig
- https://social.aiqwest.com/@alexevon
- https://todon.nl/@imke
- https://social.tchncs.de/@phr
- https://mastodon.social/@danie10
- https://barcelona.social/users/titi
- https://mastodon.technology/@dusansimic
- https://bonn.social/@vilbi
- https://mastodon.utwente.nl/@Erik
- https://mstdn.social/@Mara
- https://mastodon.lol/@piaplzn
- https://oberpfalz.social/@sebastian
- https://social.tchncs.de/@lauteshirn
- https://md.social/@zaHunter
- https://floss.social/@silmathoron
- https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@rune
- https://metu.life/@Tuan
- https://tooot.im/@aRubes
- https://strangeobject.space/@bebatjof
- https://social.tulsa.ok.us/@BalooUriza
- https://tacobelllabs.net/@rick_d_freeman
- https://mastodon.world/@beisbolcards
- https://tweesecake.social/@davetaylor2112