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.comJun 25, 2026 at 3:18 PM
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: 1 image 🚨 Important update about my latest #WSocial article 👀 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 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 image 📝 #WSocial state of the network - Friday July 10th 📣 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
Kirsten Fiedler (@kiki.eurosky.social)
🤦♀️ #WSocial is posting legal names, nationalities and approx. birthdays of verified users as a public record on the Atmosphere. Confronted, they claim it's "by design" 🤯
Public by Design: How W Social Makes Their Verified Users’ Personal Details Visible on the Open Web
A blog post explaining how the social network W Social is publishing as a record on the open social web the full names, nationalities and approximate birthdays of their verified users - who may be unaware this information is available for all to see, outside of the social network.
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
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...
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.
Have you been Wned? W Social says it respects your #privacy. But how much of your personally identifiable information is published by them to the open web for anyone to find? wdonthavetime.tngl.io/wsocial-wned/ #WSocialFacts #WSocial
Have you been Wned: Has W Social made your personal information public?
wdonthavetime.tngl.ioDo 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." 🔗: 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.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.
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
The lie here is suggesting that "9% of @bsky.app users are active daily" is the same measurement as "9% of @wsocial.eu users have ever posted more than once". #Wsocial 's actual DAU is less than 1%. This is how propaganda works. Tell little lies often enough and eventually it sounds like truth.
Ingmar Rentzhog
Yes read the analysis. Not number of users but user activity. denys.dev/w-mythology-vol3/
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.
あ
@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…
