MIL OSI Translation. Government of the Republic of France statements from French to English –
Source: Switzerland – Department of Foreign Affairs in French
Federal Chancellery
Bern, 25.09.2024 – The Federal Chancellery has been operating a Mastodon instance for the federal administration since September 2023. The pilot project, which was limited to one year, ends today as the conditions for its continuation have not been met.
As part of their legal information mandate, the Federal Council and the federal administration have also been communicating on social networks for many years and are constantly examining whether previously unused platforms are relevant.
In September 2023, the Conference of Federal Information Services decided to launch a pilot project on the decentralised Mastodon platform. The Federal Chancellery then opened the social.admin.ch instance, on which members of the Federal Council and departments could manage official accounts. The pilot project was limited to one year.
Mastodon has useful features for government communication. Thanks to its decentralized organization, the platform escapes the control of a single company and any state censorship. Its source code is open, it respects data protection and is not driven by algorithms.
Too few active users
On the social.admin.ch instance, three departments administered five accounts, and the Federal Chancellery administered one account for the entire Federal Council. The six accounts of the Confederation had around 3,500 subscribers in total.
On platforms such as X or Instagram, the Federal Council and the Federal Administration reach significantly more subscribers with comparable accounts. In addition, the contributions of the Mastodon accounts of the Federal Council and the Federal Administration have rather low engagement rates (likes, shares, comments). Finally, the number of active Mastodon users worldwide is once again declining.
The Conference of Information Services of the Confederation therefore considers that the conditions for continuing the pilot project have not been met, and activities on the Mastodon accounts of the Federal Council and the federal administration are suspended as of today. The social.admin.ch instance will be closed at the end of the month.
Address for sending questions
Urs BrudererHead of Communication Section058 483 99 69urs.bruderer@bk.admin.ch
Author
Federal Chancelleryhttps://www.bk.admin.ch/bk/fr/home.html
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.