Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)

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

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 💁‍♀️

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ (@elena@aseachange.com)

[1 media attachment] Good morning Fedi friends. Is anybody curious about how the #WSocial experiment is going? You know, the private, for profit "European answer to X" endorsed by the European Commission, which is a fork of Bluesky and has quietly gone closed-source before its beta launch (à la #TruthSocial)? I've got numbers for you! Nearly two months in, W Social has almost the same number of accounts as #Eurosky... You know, the European fork of Bluesky that does NOT require government IDs to post. W Social: 23.5k accounts Eurosky: 24.8k accounts In order to post on W Social you need to provide your government ID and go through a 13-step verification process. So far 4.5k accounts are verified but only 2036 (as of this morning) have ever published a single post or reply. There is a handy website - https://pdsls.dev - that allows you to monitor the "firehose" of any ATproto-powered PDS. Inspired by @pallenberg and his awesome videos (example: https://mu.social/profile/palle.eurosky.social/post/3mskkqrrc522l) I have been comparing the live activities of the two networks. The difference is SHOCKING. W Social is largely a zombie, dormant network, with a high number of accounts that do not interact. Eurosky by contrast shows very lively activity. The screenshot I grabbed yesterday shows a side-by-side comparison of their firehose over a 27 minute period. W Social had a total of 240 events (follows, likes, posts...) whereas Eurosky registered 7596 events in the same time interval. A couple of days ago I downloaded their PDS and saw that 67,8% of their accounts have 0 follows, 0 followers and 0 posts. That's what I mean when I call it a "zombie network." W Social's CEO says they plan to start monetizing by introducing ads in 2027. WITH THESE NUMBERS?!? Sure Jan. I love how with the transparency of open data you can't really use the standard playbook of CEO hype and hubris. Because we can all see their numbers. And they are BAAAAD. I have been feeling…

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.

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

Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)

Attached: 2 images Dear Fedi friends, Apologies for another toot about #WSocial but I am genuinely shaking right now. The @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu and its president Ursula von der Leyen have recently migrated their ATproto (Bluesky) accounts to W Social. I cannot fathom why they would pick a private enterprise whose leaders didn't even have ATproto accounts 3 months ago... and who are so open to having their users' data mined to train European AI models. My articles on them: 🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/ Wow. Just wow.

Decision to join W social network - a Freedom of Information request to Communication

https://bsky.app/profile/vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu/post/3moiosz24yk2j I wish to obtain any document that explains this decision, such as internal communication explaining the advantages of W, or contact with communications advisors who recommended this action. Yours faithfully, Alexander Fanta Follow the Money Rue Auguste Orts 2 1000 Bruxelles

W Social's Beta Is Live. The Problems Didn't Wait. - Ewan’s Blog

I am definitely not touching W.

W Social, Public Institutions and the Theater of European Digital Sovereignty

European public institutions are betting big on digital sovereignty and open source software. And yet they recently moved their Bluesky accounts to W Social, a private, for profit network owned by Swedish entrepreneurs that has quietly gone closed-source.

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/

BlueSky - The Future of Social Media

Watch BlueSky's user base grow in real-time. Innovative, decentralized social networking is here!