- Network School acquired Farcaster from Neynar and rebranded it as the Network State Protocol; immediate bans drew backlash.
- Srinivasan framed the move as restoring “law and order” under a “social smart contract” with penalties for violations.
- Users who decline the contract keep read-only access but retain their keys, funds, followers, and post history.
Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School took over Farcaster on Thursday, acquiring it from Neynar and renaming it the Network State Protocol. The same day, some Farcaster users on X said their accounts had been reduced to read-only for past posts that broke new rules.
Kunal Gandhi, former India ecosystem lead at Eigen Labs, said the move was “pretty silly” and went against the “ethos of decentralized social.” One reportedly banned user was a former Farcaster engineer, according to Cassie Heart.
Meanwhile, the deal marks Farcaster‘s second change of hands this year. Co-founder Dan Romero said the platform had 250,000 monthly active users in December 2025.
In a Farcaster post, Srinivasan said the bans were part of a plan to make the app “the Singapore of social media.” He described the first step as instituting “law and order” and compared moderating repeat offenders to President Bukele’s crackdown in El salvador.
Humans and AI reviewed millions of posts, he said, and an appeals process exists. Users must opt into a “social smart contract” that authorizes the core team to set rules.
The Network Code classifies violations as digital felonies, misdemeanors, or infractions, with penalties ranging from warnings to bans. It also promises rewards for pro-social behavior, though it does not specify what those rewards entail.
Network School says an open-weight AI model will apply the rules and eventually warn users before they post. The underlying Farcaster protocol remains open.
Users who decline the contract keep read-only access but retain their keys, funds, followers, and post history, allowing them to move to another client. Srinivasan called that ability “decentralized democracy.”
Longer term, Network School says the community will take physical form through meetups and pop-up events, and eventually develop into startup cities and network states. The acquisition comes months after Malaysian authorities revoked Network School’s Forest City business licence and ordered it to cease operations; Srinivasan subsequently announced a campus in Kazakhstan.
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