I was wondering, if I ever want to delete a post or an account on a service that uses ActivityPub, like Mastodon or Pixelfed, is it going to persist across the fediverse?

Let's say I made a political post on Mastodon using a profile with my real name and picture and I need to travel to the U.S. for work purposes and I don't want the CBP to find out about it and get turned back or arrested on entry.

If I delete this post, will it be completely removed across all instances that synchronized it?

Is a deleted post traceable in any way?

Is it kept in a log or a database on ferdiverse instances?

With governments across the globe increasingly surveiling us online and scrutinizing everything we say, I'm starting to think I should plainly delete any account that has personally identifiable information like my real name and photo. I initially thought it would be easier to connect with family and friends, but now I'm growing increasingly worried about how this can be used against me.

I just want to know if I can completely erase any post or any account from the fediverse or if there will always be a trace somewhere and it could get picked up by any government surveilance. Whether encrypted or not.

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[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 8 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

In my experience (non technical, my delelting post experience) when you create a post it propagates immediatly to any instance that is properly federate to your instance. This usually means same software and people from there following content from your instance. Then, with a lot of conditions to be fullfield, it propaged to partially federated instances. For example instance of another software that makes full federation more difficult, or instance that does a search on your specific post...

When you delete your post, it deletes automatically to any properly federated instance but that could be with a delay (a few minutes, or an hour) but the delete order has issues reaching all the other instances (the ones that were federeate when you create the post but not anymore, the ones from another fediware, ...)

You also have no guaranty that someone doesn't have your post in a backup they may use to restore a fallen instance, or leak through another way. As with every content on the internet, better consider anything once posted as know publically forever.