In response to Joe Biden and the White House enabling ActivityPub federation via Threads, a number of people asked: “Why didn’t the White House just self-host their own Mastodon server?”
Here’s some very basic musings on what it would take for that to happen. and what some of the hurdles are. Don’t consider it a definitive answer, but a jumping-off point.
Gab is in kind of the same place, with the same conclusion.
“Oh no, keeping a walled garden actually increases the value of my echo chamber! Better not open anything up to dissenting views!”