







Michael Granitzer University Passau and Open Search Foundation, Coordinator of OpenWebSearch.EU
FR#166 – No Change
Many people in Europe see the open social web as a path to digital sovereignty. This week demonstrated a problem: the assumption that European governments actually want to be sovereign.

European Commission (@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu)
Attached: 1 image A strong Europe needs independent digital spaces. We believe true digital sovereignty thrives on a competitive, contestable, open ecosystem where diverse platforms co-exist. Today, we’re expanding our presence to W, the new social media. By being on W, we want to boost alternatives and support all efforts toward a decentralised web. And we continue to invest into our presence on the Fediverse!
EU praises open source for tech sovereignty — then backs W, a private for-profit microblogging platform
To fundamentally understand why it's strange the EU Commission is throwing its weight behind this new for-profit social platform, you need to understand what lies beneath.

EU praises open source for tech sovereignty — then backs W, a private for-profit microblogging platform
To fundamentally understand why it's strange the EU Commission is throwing its weight behind this new for-profit social platform, you need to understand what lies beneath.

EU Open Source Strategy | Shaping Europe’s digital future
The EU Open Source Strategy is a cornerstone of the Tech Sovereignty package, supporting open source ecosystems across the EU - encouraging the development and uptake of European alternatives.
IndieSearch
I built a prototype for client-side, fully distributed search for the IndieWeb — check out the demo & a little explainer.
This Guy Has Built an Open Source Search Engine as an Alternative to Google in His Spare Time
"I found it very weird that there essentially is no way to browse the web in an open manner. So that's what I am trying to build," the founder of Stract said.

Elena Rossini 🌈 (@_elena@mastodon.social)
#WSocial will open up their beta program today… and I have a SCOOP for you: it appears that they have quietly gone closed-source! This is ironic, considering that the @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu just unveiled their Tech Sovereignty Package, emphasizing the importance of #OpenSource. And yet they have migrated their main ATproto accounts to W Social - whose code can no longer be inspected! My full article - with a great analysis by @aral@mastodon.ar.al: 🔗: https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-public-institutions-and-the-theater-of-european-digital-sovereignty/ #FOSS #DigitalSovereignty #BigTech
W-Social: What does sovereignty mean for social media? – Open Future
The European Commission’s move to W-Social frames it as a European alternative to X, but its closed-source code and reliance on Bluesky’s infrastructure show that sovereign social media requires open infrastructure—not European ownership alone.

Building the European Research Area as a social network - MyHub Experiments Wiki
Powerful communities, simple sites Event co-creation use case MyHub on the ATmosphere
The European Social Stack · An open declaration
An open declaration: The European Social Stack. Open Social Platforms and Private Messaging.

The European Social Stack · An open declaration
An open declaration: The European Social Stack. Open Social Platforms and Private Messaging.

I get the impression that the people at @wsocial.eu haven’t grasped the principle of a free and open social network protocol. They look a bit like venture capitalists turning up at Wikipedia and wondering how they can make a fortune there. Poke @anna.wsocial.eu
I get the impression that the people at @wsocial.eu haven’t grasped the principle of a free and open social network protocol. They look a bit like venture capitalists turning up at Wikipedia and wondering how they can make a fortune there. Poke @anna.wsocial.eu