W Social Isn't New. It Isn't Truly European. It Isn't Even Theirs. - Ewan’s Blog

W Social is TruthSocial with a European accent. - We Can Just Do Things

The establishment always wants its own internet. Different politics, identical structure: wealthy insiders, community infrastructure they didn't build, and openness performed just long enough to matter.

W-Social: What does sovereignty mean for social media? – Open Future

The European Commission’s move to W-Social frames it as a European alternative to X, but its closed-source code and reliance on Bluesky’s infrastructure show that sovereign social media requires open infrastructure—not European ownership alone.

W Social, public institutions and the theater of European digital sovereignty | Hacker News

And weirdly, there was never a peep about this in the press - while the W Social launch was on national news and a bunch of high-profile EU politicians immediately joined. What's going on here?

Fact check: Is the EU launching a social media platform called 'W'?

Viral posts claiming the EU is launching its own social media platform to counter X, in the wake of various scandals, are misleading.

Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)

Do you remember the surprise announcement of a new social network in Davos this past January? Something that promised to be the "first" European social network? Its name is #WSocial and it's a fork of #Bluesky. Its founders have ties with European politicians - but there is no official involvement by the EU. You wouldn't know any of this from media reports because they all rehashed their talking points. So I wrote a post about it, dispelling some myths: https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-uncovered-the-reality-behind-the-hype/ #OpenWashing

Europe's W Social Bet Tests its Vision of Digital Sovereignty

The European Commission has joined W Social, a closed-source platform. Megan Kirkwood asks what that reveals about Europe's digital sovereignty agenda.

FR#166 – No Change

Many people in Europe see the open social web as a path to digital sovereignty. This week demonstrated a problem: the assumption that European governments actually want to be sovereign.

The European Commission falls for openness theater by working with W Social

The European Commission has moved its profiles to W Social. That's a terrible decision.

The European Social Stack · An open declaration

An open declaration: The European Social Stack. Open Social Platforms and Private Messaging.

The European Social Stack · An open declaration

An open declaration: The European Social Stack. Open Social Platforms and Private Messaging.

Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)

#WSocial will open up their beta program today… and I have a SCOOP for you: it appears that they have quietly gone closed-source! This is ironic, considering that the @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu just unveiled their Tech Sovereignty Package, emphasizing the importance of #OpenSource. And yet they have migrated their main ATproto accounts to W Social - whose code can no longer be inspected! My full article - with a great analysis by @aral@mastodon.ar.al: 🔗: https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-public-institutions-and-the-theater-of-european-digital-sovereignty/ #FOSS #DigitalSovereignty #BigTech

W Social uncovered: the reality behind the hype

An article dispelling myths about W Social, the new European platform that aims to rival X: it is a fork of Bluesky that shares many similarities with Eurosky and requires government ID to sign up.

After Eurosky: W Social connects social network for Europe to Bluesky technology

Bluesky's AT protocol forms the basis for an increasing number of social services. Now W Social aims to establish a European network for verified users.

W Social: Hello World!

It appears the w-social client has gone closed source. Any comment on this @janlindblad.bsky.social ? The article linked therein also poses another important question: Are all the components in W Social’s ATproto stack self-hosted in Europe? So, not just the PDS, but also the relay, AppView and moderation.