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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[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

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

It will send out a message to relevant servers that it should be deleted. There is no guarantee that they will comply with that message. If your post has been copied to hundreds or thousands of other servers, there is no guarantee that they will all receive or understand that message. Some may even be actively malicious, for example because they are controlled by exactly the people you want to hide from!

I remember once deleting a comment (on this account) a few seconds after posting it. After that, I kept getting upvotes for it! I found out that that was happening because one very popular instance had for some reason not deleted the comment, so its users had no idea that it was supposed to be gone.

Is a deleted post traceable in any way?

Everything on the public Internet is. Anyone can set up a bot that just scrapes and archives everything on the Internet that it can find; and governments certainly have the resources to do so!

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

Potentially.

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.

Posting things on the public Internet, especially under one's real name, inherently comes with that risk. Always has.