Balaji’s ‘Singapore of social media’ begins with a wave of bans
Summary
Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School acquired Farcaster from Neynar and renamed it Network State Protocol, introducing stricter moderation that left some users’ accounts read-only over past posts. Srinivasan said humans and AI reviewed millions of posts and that users can appeal. The new rules operate through an opt-in social contract, with penalties ranging from warnings to bans and incentives for constructive participation. Users who reject the contract can keep their accounts and move to other clients, though they lose posting access in Farcaster’s main app. The underlying protocol remains open. The acquisition marks another change in direction for Farcaster, which had 250,000 monthly active users in December 2025.
