W Social: Hello World!
Hello World! 🙂 This category is for discussing W Social, a new member on the AT-protocol federation. Launched in conjunction with the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 19, 2026, the project has sparked a lot of praise, interest, rumors and slander. In fact, our social media monitoring console registered 1 billion post views (across all the main social media) for posts mentioning #wsocial within the first week. As I write this, W Social is not yet open for business. There i...
W Social (@wsocial.eu)
We believe in the need for a global, trusted social media platform owned, run, and hosted in Europe. W is built on verified human users, transparency, privacy, and free speech. https://wsocial.eu/
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)
Attached: 2 images I just refreshed the #WSocial website and it's showing a MAJOR redesign... with a label at the top stating "built on the open AT-protocol." This is the first time ever they acknowledge this – I know, as I've been visiting their website for MONTHS and also never heard about this in any interviews. So the claims in my exposé stand (the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine would confirm this). Of note: they changed their URL from wsocial.eu to wsocial.news BTW thanks for all your feedback ❤️
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?
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.
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ (@elena@aseachange.com)
[1 media attachment] #WSocial state of the network - September 15th, 2026 There is a lot of misinformation regarding W Social and how active/successful it is. So, from time to time, I'd love to share some numbers. The beauty of #opendata! The network endorsed by the #EuropeanCommission may be the darling of Brussels political circles and European media organizations (who simply rehash PR talking points). But the look behind the curtain is really troubling. As @pallenberg often says, this network is #DOA (dead on arrival). A social media graveyard, or rather, a simple moribund database. There is no way that Zeiter, Rentzhog & co. can start monetizing it in 2027. Numbers from this morning at 10:30am: - Accounts on their PDS: 37,531 - Users with verified ID: 7,492 - Users with 1+ post: 3,388 - Users who have never posted: 34,143 - Users with 0 posts and who follow 0 accounts: 26,444 - % of users with 0 posts, who follow 0 accounts: 70,4% - % of users who have never posted: 90,97% So, whenever you hear someone hyping it up, feel free to forward this post or point people to my articles at https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/ The one thing I will give W credit for though is how good they are at lobbying and hyping up their image. While this playbook may have worked in the past, not anymore. On an open network, with open data, it's child's play to expose misrepresentations and show the real, raw data. sources: pdsls.dev, clearsky.app, atproto.at and the csv of their full PDS that I download daily 💁♀️
W Social's Beta Is Live. The Problems Didn't Wait. - Ewan’s Blog
I am definitely not touching W.
Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)
Scoop: #WSocial has been experiencing major technical problems for over a week: it is effectively a ghost town, filled with thousands of new accounts that cannot use the platform. Because my new article contains a possible solution to their problem, by the time you read this the issue may have been fixed. Or not. It has been going on for 7+ days, with complete radio silence by its developers and founders. My exclusive: 🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-a-broken-ghost-town/ #SocialMedia #ATproto #RateLimiting
@london.gov.uk is still on wsocial.news and is still not actually on W Social. It’s been long enough to really make it look like it could be the Greta Thunberg thing all over again Sources: pdsls.dev/at://did:plc:axuvbckddrg7lwlp… blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-soci…
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Mayor Sadiq Khan, the first account shown on W Social’s promotional website, isn’t even on W Social (yet)
Jul 8, 2026 at 2:00 AM
The thought occurred to me (belatedly) that maybe there are other accounts on the promotional website that aren’t actually on W Social yet. Right now, wsocial.news shows me 4 users who are indeed on W Social and 3 who aren’t: @london.gov.uk, @beate.neos.eu, and @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu.
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@london.gov.uk is still on wsocial.news and is still not actually on W Social. It’s been long enough to really make it look like it could be the Greta Thunberg thing all over again Sources: pdsls.dev/at://did:plc:axuvbckddrg7lwlp… blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-soci…
Really important to notice the sleight of hand here. Nobody reported that @wsocial.eu *leaked* the data (except for W Social saying in their denials that others reported this). We all agree this over-publication was done on purpose, by design, in a way that is not totally clear to everyday users.
heiseonline
Das soziale Netz W Social will sich mit einer Verifizierung aller Konten von der Konkurrenz abheben. Dass einige gesammelte Daten publik sind, sei kein Fehler. #Social Media
Some thoughts on #WSocial, how they have been responding to criticism and why I believe they are showing the limits of free speech absolutism. I agree with @echna.bsky.social that "W Social seems to be on an X speedrun - without ever having been like Twitter." 🔗: aseachange.com/@elena/statuses/01M0SDV98GRDW…
![[3 media attachments] Dear friends,
Please gather around for a long post about #WSocial and how they are responding to critiques.
I have noticed a trend: W Social leaders and staunch supporters are ...](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vggsjzvhakoa7l2m2mguqv4w/bafkreihcldgcq7zjkfhikbwpjeqo6qqqw443ywuxo6rl2y6xh55tsszjim)
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ (@elena@aseachange.com)
aseachange.com@cristinacaffarra.bsky.social FYI you are listed as one of a list of "European public voices choosing W" on this web page: europetalking.wsocial.news. Is that correct? Thanks!
W Social: Where is Europe talking?
europetalking.wsocial.news@london.gov.uk is still on wsocial.news and is still not actually on W Social. It’s been long enough to really make it look like it could be the Greta Thunberg thing all over again Sources: pdsls.dev/at://did:plc:axuvbckddrg7lwlp… blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-soci…
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Mayor Sadiq Khan, the first account shown on W Social’s promotional website, isn’t even on W Social (yet)
I have just switched to W social...more news on that to come...
W Social
Welcome to W, Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu). Staff writer at The Atlantic, author of Gulag, Iron Curtain, Red Famine and Autocracy Inc. One of the most important voices on democracy in Europe.
