Folks, just a quick heads up: I’m in touch over Signal with Mahmoud from the “Help Mahmoud Family” accounts you might have seen contacting you.
Like you, I was hugely suspicious of them due to the many accounts and automated spam-like messages (I also reported and had one of them taken down as a scam).
It’s looking to me now like this was more of a misguided (and understandably, given the circumstances) desperate attempt to get help.
I ask that we keep an open mind and offer Mahmoud and his family the benefit of the doubt.
Here are the steps we’ll be taking with Mahmoud going forward to try and fix this and give him a proper introduction to Mastodon and the fediverse and hopefully rebuild trust:
1. Joy and I will meet Mahmoud for a video chat next week.
2. Once we’re happy, I will contact a friend who runs a Mastodon server to ask that Mahmoud is allowed to set up his one (and only Mastodon account there). This way, we will also know that the account will be safe in the future.
3. Mahmoud has already agreed not to use automated messages in the future.
I will update you about the state of things next week, after our video conversation.
