Balaji's "Social Media Singapore" begins with a wave of bans

Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan wants to make Farcaster a haven for well-mannered tech optimists. He had to do some housekeeping first.

The Balaji Srinivasan School of Networking has begun its reign on the Farcaster decentralized social platform. Its first order of business? A wave of bans that has caused a strong reaction from members of the decentralized social network.

The Network School announced Thursday that it has acquired Farcaster from Neynar and rebranded it as Protocol State Network. On the same day, several users on X said their Farcaster accounts had been restricted to "read-only" as a result of previous posts breaking its new rules.

"I know most of these people. They shaped Forexter with their skills and humor," said Kunal Gandhi, former head of India ecosystem at Eigen Labs. "Clearing accounts from scratch for past posts is pretty stupid. Contrary to social ethics, it is decentralized.

The overhaul is the latest attempt to find a sustainable path for Forexter, which is changing hands for the second time this year. Co-founder Dan Romero said the platform had 250,000 monthly active users in December 2025.

In a post on Farcaster on Thursday, Srinivasan said the bans are part of plans to turn the reference app into the "Singapore of social media," a positive community of upbeat techies operating under a common code of conduct.

One of the first steps, he said, was to establish "law and order." "In a pre-internet world, it was unheard of to walk up to a stranger and start swearing at them. We're restoring that offline norm to online."

Srinivasan said both humans and artificial intelligence have been used to go through millions of posts to determine what is banned, adding that there is an appeals process for them.

Based on the Network School's vision for the Network State Protocol, users choose a "social smart contract" that allows their core team to set the rules of the program. The accompanying "Network Code" classifies offenses as digital crimes, misdemeanors or misdemeanors, and includes penalties ranging from warnings and suspensions to bans. Rules apply to past posts as well as new posts.

The code also promises rewards for constructive behavior, including teaching others, sharing projects, and civil dissent, though it doesn't specify what those rewards include.

The networking school says an open-weighted AI model enforces the rules with some manual judgment and ultimately wants to warn users of potential violations before they post.

According to the announcement, the underlying Farcaster protocol will remain open. Users who opt out of the contract will have read-only access to the original app, but will retain their keys, funds, followers, and post history, allowing them to be transferred to another client. Srinivasan described this ability to join, leave, or create competing customers as "decentralized democracy."

The ultimate ambition is beyond social media. The Network School said its goal is to take the online community into physical form through meetups and pop-up events, which will eventually grow into startup cities and network states.

Network School's purchase of Farcaster comes months after Malaysian authorities revoked Forest City's business license and ordered them to cease operations over alleged violations of the license and use of the premises. Srinivasan subsequently announced an agreement to establish a campus in Kazakhstan.