Balaji Srinivasan’s Farcaster takeover triggers account restrictions

The transition to a new operating model, branded as the Network State Protocol, requires users to accept a formal code of conduct to maintain full access to Farcaster’s primary application. Those who decline are relegated to read-only status. Srinivasan defended the crackdown by comparing it to President Nayib Bukele’s crime-fighting strategy in El Salvador, stating that the platform must prioritize order to foster constructive technical discussion. According to Srinivasan, a combination of human review and AI analysis scanned millions of historical posts to identify users who had previously faced blocks or mutes.

The enforcement has drawn sharp criticism from long-time contributors, including former India ecosystem lead at Eigen Labs, Kunal Gandhi. He described the decision to penalize users for past behavior as "silly" and an affront to the decentralized culture that originally defined the network. While Srinivasan acknowledged that some accounts may have been flagged incorrectly and promised an appeals process, he did not provide a total count of those restricted. The new Network Code categorizes offenses into tiers ranging from digital misdemeanors to felonies, with penalties spanning from simple warnings to permanent bans.

Despite the tightening of the main application, the underlying Farcaster protocol remains open. Users retain control of their private keys and data, theoretically allowing them to migrate to alternative clients that do not enforce Network School’s specific moderation policies. This marks the second ownership change for the platform in 2026, following its sale from Merkle Manufactory to Neynar earlier this year. Financial terms of the current deal remain undisclosed, and the future of associated projects, such as the AI-powered token platform Clanker, remains uncertain.