Mullvad is trustworthy (imho, and because of audits).
Anyway, you can have both, and run purple i2p with blackjack and torrents!
The closest would be a folder, synchronized between phone and computer (e.g. using syncthing) where you save the torrent files. Then the client scans and automatically adds torrents from there. It will remove such files, so while at it, you should also configure to save completed torrent files somewhere. When possible, torrent files are a better option (they bring metadata, required if you ever wanted to re-share some content).
They were cutting files in smaller parts and spreading over multiple locations and countries. At least that was the claim in the early days, so anything illegal would require lawyers on many jurisdictions sending the same letter (e.g. DMCA takedown)
Ironically, it did work but now that Durov is in jail channel admins would do good to take precautions.
Nice write-up. I'd take this as a blueprint. Anyone can swap 3rd-party services to their like (e.g. headscale, xmpp bot on that vps, backblaze s3, etc.) and extend upon (e.g. oidc providers, mailboxes, arr suite, etc.)
A cheap VPS with headscale. Or just ZeroTier.com free plan.
Oh. And an invite-only could also work for new accounts.
On an instance level, you can close registration after a threshold level of users that you are comfortable with. Then, you can defederate the instances that are driven by capitalistic ideals like eternal growth (e.g. Threads from meta)
But terrible handling of metadata. Which is the case for all chat apps AFAIK. Like, even with OMEMO, who talks with whom, and when, can be exposed. Which sometimes is enough to get legal issues (e.g. Ola Bini's case)
The "other criminal activity" probably includes many horrible things. Not just a teen selling shrooms. So, I am not so sure that's really what we want.
AI (e.g. face recognition) is riddled with false positives. Such a tech already does wrong on civilians without being a weapon (e.g. cameras on subways). What you said is somewhat naïve.
Oh, fair point. Perhaps rclone.org then! :O