Mastodawn

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂

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 to know me for my advocacy for the Fediverse (like my Fedi intro video: https://blog.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/ or my blog or my Fediverse stock photo). So, you may have been a bit confused lately, over all my critical posts about the new network W Social. Why do I keep bringing it up?

I believe that W Social - and its required, companion app W Identity - are an existential threat to the Fediverse. So I'm fighting tooth and nail to oppose and resist them.

Why? The European Commission has enthusiastically embraced this new hard fork of Bluesky that requires age verification. Even Ursula von der Leyen advertised the launch of W Social in between G7 meetings last week.

I have MOUNTAINS of evidence of poor planning, extremely lax security, use of U.S. Big Tech platforms for something that purports to be "based in Europe, for the world."

Why is it a threat for the Fediverse? The only way to make sense of the European Commission's embrace of this platform is that maybe it sees it as a trial run for MANDATORY age verification for social media across the European Union.

No Fediverse app has infrastructure in place to comply. And if a mandate is introduced, it would spell the end of the open social web and internet anonymity... like Chat Control, but basically killing the Fediverse.

I find it EXTREMELY disturbing to see the enthusiastic embrace of W Social by the European Commission. It took them YEARS to change their website footer and add Mastodon and Bluesky instead of X. In the span of 5 weeks, they replaced the Bluesky logo (a butterfly) with the "W" from W Social.

All my posts about W Social from last week went viral. My articles have been quoted in articles in French, Dutch and German news sites (https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/).

I have held back from sharing more evidence I found because I don't want to appear like a bully who promotes pile-ons. I'm a nice, sweet person, I promise! I take ZERO pleasure in writing about W Social, but I have unwittingly become an expert on them - after researching them for 5 months. So here I am.

I will keep investigating them. If you don't want to hear about this topic anymore - I would understand - you can mute the hashtags #Wsocial and #DubyaSocial (that's a pretty apt way to describe them IMHO).

Peace out.

#introduction #reintroduction

Kerfuffle 2d ago

@elena Thnx! Hope @EUCommission is also keeping track of your work.

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂2d ago

@kerfuffle thanks! I'm probably on their black list by now 🙈

Thomas Bourdon 2d ago

@elena
I talked around me about this W social media. People didn't know it, but now they know it's garbage !

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂2d ago

@thomasbourdon haha thank you for your service Thomas

@elena I am thinking it might just be a pipe misfire. I don't think people will be interested to hang out where Ursula wants them to. I believe it's just a redirect of money that would actually have to go to the fedi or other real open solutions. I don't think anyone cares if it actually takes of.

Else, Someone 2d ago

Reading the "untold story", a very enjoyable writing despite the unenjoyable subject!

> Trendspotting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7msoqnz2bcY

I don't say "TREN", I say "TRAIN"

YouTube

Else, Someone 2d ago

> I have held back from sharing more evidence I found because I don't want to appear like a bully who promotes pile-ons

Nah some things are worth bullying. Like age assurances and biometric Ausweiss efforts

Enea Lecas 2d ago

@elena Dubya sounds like dubious.

Else, Someone 2d ago

@elena
> This video has been removed by the uploader

Welp, I hope there's some invidious instance out there hasn't purged their caches

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂2d ago

@nobody ooooooh please explain! do you think there's a way to retrieve this?

I follow the hashtag because of information like yours

@elena 'W Social' aka 'Euro Twitter'.

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂2d ago

@DukeDuke European Truth Social, more like it: https://wecanjustdothings.leaflet.pub/3mokohkfb4224

W Social is TruthSocial with a European accent. - We Can Just Do Things

Different politics, identical structure: wealthy insiders, community infrastructure they didn't build, and openness performed just long enough to matter. The establishment always wants its own internet.

XocoLinguo 1d ago

@elena @DukeDuke It seems that any network with "social" in its name is probably ANTI-social

XocoLinguo 1d ago

@elena @DukeDuke Truth ANTI-social
W ANTI-Social
Can anyone think of other examples? Or is that the extent of the pattern?

Gytis Repečka 2d ago

@elena Now give it some time before @EUCommission drops Fediverse to focus efforts on W Social...

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂2d ago

@gytisrepecka nightmare scenario

European Commission 2d ago

Hello @elena @gytisrepecka!
Rest assured, we have no plans to reduce our efforts on the Fediverse. In fact, we we plan to extend the EU presence here further. 🇪🇺

Gytis Repečka 2d ago

@EUCommission Very much hope so

But just in case, I will save the post for future reference

Richard de Waard 2d ago

@EUCommission @elena @gytisrepecka I hope so, but why do the W Social thing at all? There already is Eurosky for AT Protocol.

@WaardRichard @EUCommission @elena @gytisrepecka

And even: why use ATProto at all if you have your own ec.socialnetwork.europa.eu ActivityPub and can bridge from there?

POSSE!

#digitalsovereignty

Davide_Sandini 1d ago

Nice to see a reply from you, @EUCommission , especially on a feedback to the message from
@elena
But unfortunately all the questions opened by Elena's post remain open.
I am extremely worried even if only part of what Elena wrote could be your goal. @gytisrepecka

Leander Lindahl 1d ago

@EUCommission I think it's reasonable to expect our leading democratic office holders like European Presidents von der Leyen, Costa, high representative Kallas and ECB president Lagarde to #plusOne and publish their "tweets" in the Fediverse for basic democratic hygiene and to nurture a healthy information system.

https://folkdata.se/en/plus-one/

@elena @gytisrepecka

XocoLinguo 1d ago

@leanderlindahl @EUCommission @elena @gytisrepecka
Irony:

So, for the sake of age tracking, the EU is promoting a service that is basically a symptom of the problem they purport to be trying to solve

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂1d ago

@EUCommission thank you for the promising news!

and I hope that if an age verification mandate for social media is introduced in the European Union, it won't apply to the fediverse

Gytis Repečka 1d ago

@elena Because it is impossible to enforce such limitations upon federated services (e.g.: e-mail)

⠠⠵ avuko 1d ago

@elena @EUCommission @gytisrepecka

Like with #chatcontrol, I hope the @EUCommission is wise enough to (finally) listen to the people with expertise, and let the #OnlineAusweis concept go.

It will only bring repression and suffering.

David Weir 1d ago

@EUCommission That’s great news, thank you!

Karmalakas 2d ago

@EUCommission, @digitaleu, do you have any response maybe to all the backlash you're getting all over the Fedi about your marriage with W? Can we read somewhere about your position on this?

Pol Dellaiera 2d ago

@elena Hello, have you tried to reach DG COMM directly ?

Cyberhero 🇩🇪 🇪🇺2d ago

Aetherius Eldritch ⛤🧙‍♂️🎙✍2d ago

@elena welcome

@elena I'll never trust W or similar company with my ID data. Its complete nonsense. We are seeing every day breaches and even if they would have genuine intentions, mistakes can happen.
We do not need another social media and it's completely stupid for gov or eu to have accounts on commercial platforms when they can run their own mastodon or whatever server with 100% control.

millennial fulcrum 2d ago

@alvyntc @elena good on you! I assure you the fediverse is not going away. countries fuck themselves into a conservative corner every now and then. but a free and open internet is outside those temporary problems to destroy.

W, blusky, facebook, all of them corporate owned social media are a joke. once people understand they can just be free, they will be.

@alvyntc
> when they can run their own mastodon or whatever server with 100% control.

They are under control. Willingly. And it pays them lump sums with no effort but "political will" here and there.

Mastodon instance simply can not be implemented and run by no modern government.

@alvyntc @elena Completely agree with you....

ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES 2d ago

if in the USA someone in govt endorsed a new social media, say if Chuck Schumer said "go to Bluesky!" it would be a kiss of death, not a boost. i don't know about Europe, might be different there

if it's Dua Lipa or SZA, i would expect a boost. but not from a govt hack

however, there is a social media that got a boost from a politician: truth social. but that's because it's a cult of dum dums. europe also has dum dums but ursula is no cult leader

Scott Galloway 2d ago

@benroyce @elena It was never about a real alternative if you check the board they're all political insiders; it's about FUNDING.

Scott M. Stolz 1d ago

@ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES But, they don't have to endorse it directly. All they have to do is say "follow me here" and give a link, and then not be on other platforms, or if they are, not mention it as much.

Juffo-Wup 2d ago

Seppo Raudaskoski 2d ago

@elena ping @Saramo

Old Texas Dude 🌵⚖️🗝️2d ago

@elena
Thank you for staying on this.
From the US: mandatory age verification never stays scoped to "protect minors." It becomes a permanent identity layer on speech, and the justification always expands later. We've watched that exact pattern with surveillance law for 20 years.
The Fediverse's whole value is no one controls the on-ramp. If the EU treats W Social as a verification pilot, instances with no KYC infrastructure don't get to comply later — they get cut off.
Keep posting it.

@elena
I wouldn't worry too much. You just don't come up with a social network and then expect masses to come over just like that. That just doesn't happen. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I mean, otherwise everyone would be spawning social networks like there's no tomorrow, right?

Unless, ofc they _don't even expect_ it to gain traction, but want to use it as a testbed for id control... I have a hard time believing them to be _that_ smart. I think they're just being plain stupid.

@elena
I do not think the fediverse is under threat by the new commercial effort.
It is entirely up to us, the users, to keep the fediverse alive and lively.

If politicians and journalists want to move to something controlled in a boardroom, that is up to them. They can enjoy the new algorithms as much as they like and implicitly be controlled by where the advertisers are.

In the mean time, we will be where we can have real discussions with real people without the promotional fluff.

lower-value human capital 2d ago

@mfierst I think one of us has misunderstood @elena's point. It could well be me! But I think that Elena is saying that #DubyaSocial is the thin edge of the Mandatory Social Media Identity Verification wedge, and the latter is what will kill the fediverse. Once the no-ID-required fediverse becomes illegal, it either shuts down or adopts ID ("age") verification, which will turn it into something very much less than it is.

@sennoma @elena
If that is the case, and you might be right, it will probably kill all social media in one blow.
We would be back to mailing lists 😉

Raul Matias 2d ago

@sennoma @mfierst @elena
> it either shuts down or adopts ID ("age") verification

Why is hosting instances on offshore bulletproof servers not an option?

Raul Matias 2d ago

@sennoma @mfierst @elena That's not even a hypothetical by the way, not all instances are hosted in EU and I know some instances based in Russia/Ukraine/Romania/other countries where hosting companies tend to not care about what you host. Not sure if they would appreciate a sudden influx of English-speaking users or our discourse, though.

StellaRaven 2d ago

@raulmatias @sennoma @mfierst @elena

@sennoma @elena
Further information written by a Dutch journalist. See number 3). For the time being the link between W and age-verification remains unclear.

1) https://mastodon.nl/@Marloezovic/116798445131495939

2) https://mastodon.nl/@Marloezovic/116798461908532720

3) https://mastodon.nl/@Marloezovic/116798471331700914

Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂1d ago

@sennoma @mfierst this!

McWabbit 🇺🇦🍋🌻🍉2d ago

Some in the fediverse were irked by the pile-ons, like “I left twitter for that, only to see it here too!”.

Fren, these are justified. What the EC is doing is basically promoting a VC owned social media platform as a so-called European alternative (false) and thus encouraging trial runs to enforce ID verifications. I say hell to the fucking NO!

Piling on threads will be the least of one’s problems if our personal freedoms are taken away, step by step.

official_verified

@elena @andypiper Thank you for fighting this Elena 💚 You are right to be worried, and everyone else should be worried too, even outside of Europe.