Background

With the sudden decline in Twitter due to its change in ownership to an apartheid heir billionaire, change in its verification policies, and changes to its algorithm to prefer paid subscribers rather than organic promotion of posts have already impacted DSA’s reach for both followers of our accounts as well as non-followers that may be interested in seeing what we’re up to.

On top of this, the changes to the verification policy have made impersonation much easier. While previously only DSA and YDSA had verification, and many of our accounts were at risk of impersonation, it’s become even less obvious who is a real or fake account as anyone is able to pay $8 for a blue checkmark next to their account handle.

DSA has had legitimate arms of our organization suspended as a result of impersonation efforts, along with being subject to the outrage machine on Social Media as a result of someone making a “DSA Official Bad Thing” account to make it appear that we support something we do not.

Many DSA comrades, chapters, and national bodies have begun looking at a few alternatives to Twitter, namely Mastodon and Bluesky, to escape the drawbacks of Twitter in the last year. The NTC does not have an official recommendation for which social media service DSA should use, as these should largely be seen as part of a larger publication and promotion strategy around our actual day-to-day organizing. That said, Mastodon and Bluesky both have a single advantage to Twitter and other social media companies which is we can verify our own accounts as official arms of DSA, rather than need to pay up or rely on a company to verify our accounts.

Verification Guides

Bluesky

Bluesky is invite only for now, but more DSA chapters and National Working Groups have been gaining access to it. The NTC cannot provide invites to Bluesky but you should ask around to your comrades, someone you know might be able to help!

Bluesky verifies your account by a DNS TXT record or via a file uploaded to your DSA chapter’s website. After verification is completed, your Bluesky handle is changed from @[dsa-chapter].bsky.social to your domain name.

Step 1:

Visit https://bsky.app/settings

Step 2:

Click “Change handle”

Step 3:

You will see a pop-up screen, click “I have my own domain”

Step 4:

Follow one of the following steps below

Step 4a: DNS Verification

The quickest way to verify your domain is using DNS. While this requires having back-end access to your domain to make new DNS records, it takes five minutes to complete.

Note for National DSA bodies: you will need to request this by using the dsausa.org subdomain form as you will need to request a new DNS record to be made under your subdomain name.

Note for DSA Chapters: If you do not have a domain, the NTC can provision a [dsa-chapter].dsachapters.org domain for your chapter. Reach out to [email protected] for more details.

Begin by typing out your domain, we are using tech.dsausa.org here:

To set a DNS record, log in to your Domain Registrar (or other DNS service if your chapter uses it) and navigate to where you create a new DNS record. Create a new TXT record for _atproto.[your-dsa-domain] and add the Value displayed above (the Copy Domain Value button also works) and paste it in.

Click the links below to view instructions for the specific domain registrar you use:

After you apply the DNS record at your registrar, wait a few minutes then hit Verify DNS Record on Bluesky. You’ll get a message saying it succeeded and your domain will be updated.

Step 4b: Webpage upload

If you do not have access to your DNS, you can upload a file to a directory on your DSA Chapter’s web server which will do the same function. Note: This requires both your chapter to have a website and for it to stay online. If you do not have a website you will need to use DNS covered in Step 4a.

Create a new directory (if one doesn’t exist) in the root of your website called .well-known and create a new file called atproto-did. Inside this file paste the displayed value above which can be copied to your clipboard with the Copy File Contents button. Save the file then hit Verify Text File

Mastodon

Mastodon’s verification is different than Bluesky. Rather than verify a domain and make it your username, Mastodon permits up to four verified domains in your user profile. Mastodon requires you to have edit access to your chapter or national body’s webpage. See: Mastodon’s Verification Page

Step 1

Visit your Mastodon instance’s settings page and click Profile (https://[your-mastodon-server-here]/settings/profile)

Scroll down until you see the Profile metadata and Verification. Newer instances will have Verification be its own category (https://[your-mastodon-server-here]/settings/verification)

Click the Copy button. The record will look something like this: <a rel="me href="https://[your-mastodon-server-here]/@[your-user-name]">Mastodon</a>. You can choose to add this as is or incorporate this element as another part of your existing website (talk to your web admin in your chapter!)

Step 2

Paste the value of the Verification in to your website. This can be a direct link or another item (like a Mastodon icon) on the a webpage. Here is a full view of a filled out profile from one of the New Jersey DSA chapter accounts:

Step 3

Add your website to your Mastodon profile and click save. Verification will happen automatically. If it works, a green check will be added next to the domain on your profile.

Example: Here is North Jersey DSA’s Mastodon Account

Background

Verification Guides