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-anโฆ
W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data
blog.elenarossini.comJun 25, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Elena Rossini ๐ (@_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" ๐ : https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-and-the-beauty-of-open-data/ #blog #BigTech #EUBigTech #TEP #TrustedEuropeanPlatforms #TrustYourFeed
Elena Rossini ๐ (@_elena@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 image ๐จ Important update about my latest #WSocial article ๐ A user on #ATproto cracked the code and came up with a reasonable explanation for the made up number of comments on W Social's homepage. The number next to the speech bubble (comment icon) are an "engagement metric": the sum of boosts and likes. It all makes sense now! https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-and-the-beauty-of-open-data/ (scroll down to the end of the article for the update)
W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data
W Social's tagline is "Trust Your Feed" but the company's landing page displays inflated engagement metrics - a misrepresentation that contradicts its own promise.
Elena Rossini ๐ (@_elena@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 image ๐ #WSocial state of the network - Friday July 10th ๐ฃ for those who are curious about it, considering the enthusiastic endorsement by prestigious European institutions #OpenData allows me to crunch numbers. On day 23 since its beta launch in Brussels, W Social has 11291 accounts: - 469 new users since yesterday - 899 users have published one or more posts - 72 new users posting since yesterday - 92% have never* published a single post *may be related to #WIdentity and its 13-step process
Elena Rossini ๐ (@_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: ๐ : https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-a-broken-ghost-town/ #SocialMedia #ATproto #RateLimiting
W Social: Hello World!
Hello World! ๐ 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...
siwek (@siwek@social.tooinconsistent.com)
@_elena@mastodon.social It seems they are calculating "engagement" which I'm assuming is likes + reposts + comments and then show it as number of comments.
Elena Rossini ๐ (@_elena@mastodon.social)
๐ #WSocial state of the network ๐ฃ for those who are curious about it, considering the enthusiastic endorsement by prestigious European institutions. #OpenData allows me to crunch numbers (information about Bluesky PDSs is readily available). On day 18 since its beta launch in Brussels, W Social has 7935 accounts: - 90,5% have never* published a single post - 82,2% have 0 followers - 78% follow 0 accounts (may be related to #WIdentity and its 13-step process) LMK if you find this useful
The thought occurred to me (belatedly) that maybe there are other accounts on the promotional website that arenโt actually on W Social yet. Right now, wsocial.news shows me 4 users who are indeed on W Social and 3 who arenโt: @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. Itโs 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:axuvbckddrg7lwlpโฆ blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-sociโฆ
Do our social media algorithms correctly reflect our values? Our new article published today in @pnas.org shows that the answer is often not, and that the content that gets promoted into their ranked feeds is often actively counter to our values.
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." ๐: aseachange.com/@elena/statuses/01M0SDV98GRDWโฆ
![[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 โ (@elena@aseachange.com)
aseachange.comDo our social media algorithms correctly reflect our values? Our new article published today in @pnas.org shows that the answer is often not, and that the content that gets promoted into their ranked feeds is often actively counter to our values.
