Reaper Social

Reaper Social (reaper.social) is a Mastodon and Fediverse search and investigation tool that allows investigators to search across federated social networks — the decentralized social media ecosystem that includes Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, and other ActivityPub-compatible platforms — for specific users, posts, and hashtags.

For OSINT investigators, Reaper Social addresses a growing intelligence gap as more users migrate from centralized social media platforms (Twitter/X) to decentralized Fediverse platforms. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, there is no single search interface for the Fediverse — each instance (server) has its own search, and finding content across the entire federated network requires tools specifically designed for federated search.

Username research across the Fediverse requires knowing which instance a user is on, as Fediverse identities include the instance (username@instance.social). Reaper Social searches across multiple instances, helping investigators identify which Fediverse server a subject uses.

Hashtag searches across federated instances surface posts from the broader Fediverse community discussing specific topics — useful for monitoring discussions relevant to an investigation across the distributed social graph.

For investigations involving subjects who migrated from Twitter to Mastodon — particularly journalists, activists, security researchers, and technology professionals who moved in large numbers following Twitter ownership changes — Reaper Social provides discovery of their Fediverse presence.

The decentralized nature of the Fediverse means content policies vary by instance. Some instances retain content indefinitely while others have aggressive content retention limits. Evidence from Fediverse should be preserved immediately upon discovery.

Fediverse growth means this category of investigation tooling will become increasingly important as more significant communities establish themselves on decentralized platforms.

Document searched usernames, hashtags, instances searched, and findings with timestamps.