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Balaji’s ‘Singapore of social media’ begins with a wave of bans
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Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School acquired Farcaster from Neynar and rebranded it the Network State Protocol. Several users said their accounts were restricted to “read-only” over past posts that violated new rules. The move sparked backlash from members who said banning old content clashes with decentralized social ideals.
Srinivasan said the bans aim to make the app “the Singapore of social media,” a positive-sum community under a shared code. He called it restoring “law and order” online. He compared the moderation to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown, saying a small fraction of repeat offenders were removed to stop random attacks.
Farcaster is changing hands for the second time this year. Co-founder Dan Romero said in December 2025 that it had 250,000 monthly active users. Network School’s “Network Code” classifies violations as digital felonies, misdemeanors, or infractions, with penalties from warnings to bans, applying to past and new posts.
Srinivasan said humans and AI reviewed millions of posts to identify accounts to ban, and an appeals process exists. Kunal Gandhi, former India ecosystem lead at Eigen Labs, criticized the removals. “Obliterating accounts from the get-go for past posts is pretty silly,” he said, adding it goes against decentralized social ethos.
Under Network State Protocol, users opt into a “social smart contract” authorizing its core team to set rules. The code promises unspecified rewards for constructive behavior, such as teaching, sharing projects, and civil disagreement. An open-weight AI model will apply rules, with some manual judgment, and may eventually warn users before they post.
The underlying Farcaster protocol will remain open, and users who decline the contract retain keys, funds, followers, and post history while getting read-only access. Srinivasan called the ability to join, leave, or build competing clients “decentralized democracy.” Network School also aims to develop meetups, startup cities, and network states, after Malaysian authorities revoked its Forest City licence and it announced a Kazakhstan campus.
