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 Bluesk...
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 ❤️
What is ‘W,’ Europe’s attempt to replace Elon Musk’s X?
The Swedish-based “W” platform” is the latest in a series of new social media sites vying to replace US Big Tech companies.
W Don't Have Time (@wdonthavetime.selfhosted.social)
#WIdentity is the real product. @wsocial.eu is just a testing ground. #WSocialFacts
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…
DavidB (@david.eurosky.social)
"But why so much hostility?" Because WSocial has been dishonest since day one. The first time I heard of you, it was an ad saying that there was no European social media. Which was your first lie of a long series. "We're building a new social media." Another lie, you're a fork of Bluesky. And so on.
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
wdonthavetime.selfhosted.social/wsocial-reporting
Scripts for observing public data on the W Social PDS, pds.wsocial.network. They only read what the server already makes public, and none of them need a login.
wdonthavetime.selfhosted.social/wsocial-reporting
Scripts for observing public data on the W Social PDS, pds.wsocial.network. They only read what the server already makes public, and none of them need a login.
W Social uncovered: the reality behind the hype
An article dispelling myths about W Social, the new European platform that aims to rival X: it is a fork of Bluesky that shares many similarities with Eurosky and requires government ID to sign up.
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...
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.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…
@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.
Ok — I've seen enough. #WSocial is the politics of Elon Musk meets the accountability of Mark Zuckerberg.
Elena Rossini ⁂
Dear friends who don't speak German: Go to YouTube ASAP, turn on subtitles → autogenerated translation and watch this video! TL;DR: #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" 🤯
#WSocial in the news, English version. Thanks to @josefplatil.wsocial.eu for the original post and @corkiejp.github.io for the idea translating it ☺️
Josef Platil
