This is a rough draft of a thought, but my sense of #WSocial is that it is an attempt to enclose the commons. By cultivating the idea that WSocial is only humans and bots are the primary drivers of mis/disinformation, they're establishing a framework which accomplishes two things:
Elena Rossini ⁂
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…
Aug 24, 2026 at 2:17 PM
WSocial could change everything - matlfb.com
In early 2026, the European Union announced its own Twitter-like platform called WSocial. The most surprising part is that it is expected to be a fork of Blu...
WSocial: Twitter – but make it Euro
Wenn es schlecht läuft, könnte WSocial zum „Truth Social" von Ursula von der Leyen werden. Mit WSocial ist ein neues soziales Netzwerk mit europäischen Wurzel gestartet. Wer hier rein will, muss vorher einen Ausweis zeigen. Ganz vorne auf der Webseite Ursula von der Leyen. Donald Trump hat mit Truth Social sein eigenes soziales Netzwerk, auf…
Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)
SCOOP: #WSocial is doctoring metrics on its homepage, inflating the number of comments on posts by prominent people on its network. I suppose a more accurate tagline for them should be "Trust your feed?" My article about it: "W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data" 🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-and-the-beauty-of-open-data/ #blog #BigTech #EUBigTech #TEP #TrustedEuropeanPlatforms #TrustYourFeed
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: 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...
Building A Prosocial Media Ecosystem | NOEMA
There’s never been a better time to make social media what it always should have been: a tool to strengthen rather than strip-mine the social fabric.
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
Is Bluesky's "Decentralization" Real? – The Empty Promise of DIDs and the Path to a WordPress-Style Ecosystem - Nightflight
On Betraying Principles
Why Creative Commons must be about more than reducing friction on reuse This week, I had the experience of being told the work we are doing at Creative Commons right now is betraying the founding principles of the organization. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last.
LATEST: on #WSocial's website, comment counts for posts by prominent users are incorrectly displayed, showing artificially elevated numbers. @opfuchs.gay came up with an interesting theory for it. "W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data": blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-an…
W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data
blog.elenarossini.comThis is a rough draft of a thought, but my sense of #WSocial is that it is an attempt to enclose the commons. By cultivating the idea that WSocial is only humans and bots are the primary drivers of mis/disinformation, they're establishing a framework which accomplishes two things:
Elena Rossini ⁂
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…
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@wsocial.eu - I was one of the first to subscribe after Davos, but now I wonder what's the use of WSocial. We had to show our ID to get access, but now it seems there are many backdoors without the need for verification. Maybe I just go back to Mastodon. Nice try, but I feel a little betrayed.
Interesting point: "The only way to make sense of the European Commission's embrace of WSocial is that maybe it sees it as a trial run for MANDATORY age verification for social media across the European Union." @elenarossini.com
![[1 media attachment] Dear Fedi friends,
It may be time for a re-introduction: I'm Elena, an Italian creative (writer, photographer, filmmaker) living in Paris, France.
You may have initially gotten ...](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:v4zpi74gy7enfiwke7hmoxv5/bafkreihfn2sd2mtodvb6smd4ebgggkow2m5ryobxk6gek3uqny7ceul2f4)
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ (@elena@aseachange.com)
aseachange.comSo this is my little very much subjective rant about #wsocial and the stupid shenanigans they've pulled that have ticked me off.
W Social and why I hate it - The Angry Dutchman
angrydutchman.pckt.blogIf WSocial sold people on the idea that everyone they would interact with is ID-verified, then indeed, every single open ATProto community would act as a back door of sorts. The only way for them to deliver would be to de-federate entirely. And it's always a bad idea to bet against openness.
Wimster9030 🇪🇺 🇧🇪
I know, Daniel, but that's not the way WSocial "sold" it to us. We could only access trough ID-verification so we know for 100% they are EU and a "real person". That was the whole point. So we went trough that process, but now it seems that the backdoor are the other ATProt platforms to get in too.
