What do you mean by "get banned"?
If you mean you violate the term of use and the podmin closed your account, you can create one on another pod and re-add your friends for sure.
I'm just not clear about the federation works I guess. If a power hungry mod (or maybe a good guy coming under very intense pressure from someone else) were to hate me, could he block me from sending messages to my friends by refusing federation somehow?
I dont want to be on a platform that can hold my friend hostage, is why I'm asking.
EDIT: If hub federation is needed for asynch messages, and unblockable (by hub owner) p2p used for chat when both users are online, then I guess that would be acceptable.