Pretty sure I saw a thing from the instance admin that a sufficiently anonymous host costs about 3x as much as whatever he was using, and would need more donations prior.

For hire private 50 cent party. Typical PR move, beyond just Reddit. A statement like

You’re shilling for a different company lmfao…pot calling the kettle black…

is probably written by someone who doesn’t know or care about the details of what’s been happening. Which means they’re probably either using a script, or making assumptions to just do their job. The fact that decentralised communication is a far cry from corporations is completely missed because they probably just don’t know.

Ham radio enthusiasts will start feeling very pleased with themselves then. Until jammers are brought in anyway.

The tricky bit is that a smaller ownership structure makes the owners more personally liable, as arguments could more easily be made that the entire server exists to service the most active channel regardless of the other content. Larger platforms are better able to utilise Safe Harbour rules. As someone else has said, it also matters where the servers are located.