The European Commission has registered a new Citizen Initiative, calling for a European social media platform.
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@hpod16 @streetcoder indeed.
The way I saw it is that the W Social founders took advantage of the hype surrounding the potential involvement by the EC / EU politicians and ran with it. They never issued any official clarifications that it was a private initiative.
It took 10 DAYS (I counted) for a media organization (EuroNews) to reach out to the EC for an official comment on the matter. Dozens of publications never fact-checked the claims, sigh.
The sorry state of media in 2026...
@_elena @hpod16 What I'm worried about is they're talking about: "alternative to the current platforms"
Why yet another one? Make the existing Fediverse even better!
"European safe space"
What's that, ID and age verification? How?
"be funded by the society and be under its oversight"
Which society? The EU in general, a company, NGO? Who has the oversight and how?
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@Gina
Best course of action is to find the people behind this citizen initiative and support them when they start promoting the signatures pageThe email for the initiative organizers can be found at the bottom of the initiative page tracker: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2026/000004_en
But it's not clear to me, as a Fediverse netizen with an European origin, that I need a centrally managed platform that would have an "governmental oversight" to achieve whatever goals are set.
But, I do agree that the organizations that support the mostly free and open infrastructure of the Fediverse, should be supported.
The europeans and their sovereign bodies should be motivated to support and develop the existing fabric to ensure the autonomy and the freedom of though as of our core values.
Adding that the EU and it's different bodies should only be present in safe networks, not in "X", not in "YouTube", not in any big tech playground that promotes proffit over humanism. -
The European Commission has registered a new Citizen Initiative, calling for a European social media platform.
In detail: The initiative invites the Commission to establish, through a legislative act, “a public social media platform at the European level”. That "would form an alternative to the current platforms and work as a service for the society, be funded by the society and be under its oversight”.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_522@hpod16 As long as it doesn't involve daffy and dangerous age verification schemes, it sounds like a good way to start de-Americanizing the EU tech stack.
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The European Commission has registered a new Citizen Initiative, calling for a European social media platform.
In detail: The initiative invites the Commission to establish, through a legislative act, “a public social media platform at the European level”. That "would form an alternative to the current platforms and work as a service for the society, be funded by the society and be under its oversight”.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_522@hpod16 yes about time -freeloadiing your media management on insecure datascraping manipulation machines was never going to work long term..
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@_elena @hpod16 @streetcoder Fully agree, but if you do choose W, sign up here: https://w-social.eu/
@Gina @_elena @hpod16 @streetcoder
I love the favicon! -
The European Commission has registered a new Citizen Initiative, calling for a European social media platform.
In detail: The initiative invites the Commission to establish, through a legislative act, “a public social media platform at the European level”. That "would form an alternative to the current platforms and work as a service for the society, be funded by the society and be under its oversight”.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_522@hpod16 Lets hope Starmer gets on board with this - cant imagine what kind of cut down version of this the UK would get otherwise looking at the reduced value everything we have now post Brexit.
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@hpod16 Lets hope Starmer gets on board with this - cant imagine what kind of cut down version of this the UK would get otherwise looking at the reduced value everything we have now post Brexit.
@Shephallmassive
I mean… right now this is just a registration for a citizen initiative. That means that from now on, they will need to gather 1 million signatures from at least 7 countries, and then, once that’s done the commission has to LOOK AT the proposal and write an answer. Doesn’t mean they HAVE to create this. The commission can also find that they are not the right org to do this. -
The European Commission has registered a new Citizen Initiative, calling for a European social media platform.
In detail: The initiative invites the Commission to establish, through a legislative act, “a public social media platform at the European level”. That "would form an alternative to the current platforms and work as a service for the society, be funded by the society and be under its oversight”.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_522Slightly more information about this #citizenInitiative here for a #European #SocialMedia here: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2026/000004_en
IF This reaches the required amount of signatures it will have to be examined by the European Commission. What conclusion the commission will come to I cannot predict, but it may consider the option of building on existing infrastructure *cough* #mastodon *cough* …
These processes take quite a long time, but I’ll keep updating here
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@_elena Maybe off topic but I just saw that EuroNews doesn't have a official presence in the Fediverse besides @Flipboard based channels.
@gelbphoenix @_elena @Flipboard If only that was the only thing that was wrong with it...
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Slightly more information about this #citizenInitiative here for a #European #SocialMedia here: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2026/000004_en
IF This reaches the required amount of signatures it will have to be examined by the European Commission. What conclusion the commission will come to I cannot predict, but it may consider the option of building on existing infrastructure *cough* #mastodon *cough* …
These processes take quite a long time, but I’ll keep updating here@hpod16 Why must it be *cough* Mastodon?
There is plenty of other stuff around AND the magic word is decentralized ! https://getmona.app/rich_text/966659855104 -
@hpod16 > "Following today's registration, the organisers have six months to open the 12-month period of signature collection. If an ECI receives at least one million statements of support during that time, with minimum numbers reached in at least seven Member States, the Commission is required to react, and decide what, if any, action it will take in response to the initiative, justifying its decision."
Cool, how and where will we gather these signatures? Will happily campaign for #Mastodon
@Gina @hpod16 Actually once you realise the length of time large orgs have been freeloading off unknown managed tools it make you wonder why governments and local aurhorities didn’t invest in regulated platforms sooner bearing in mind that facebook and other app owners were quite open about bringing a platform to replace local government and decision making
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The European Commission has registered a new Citizen Initiative, calling for a European social media platform.
In detail: The initiative invites the Commission to establish, through a legislative act, “a public social media platform at the European level”. That "would form an alternative to the current platforms and work as a service for the society, be funded by the society and be under its oversight”.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_522I wonder who are the proposers for this request.
Asking the govt. to take ownership of a social network, is like screaming to be controlled.
Let's not sustain or share this initiative in any way.
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@hpod16 That's good, than there is hope that they use the money wisely.
The paper is sadly not very specific what they plan to do, so we will see.
@streetcoder
They don’t need to be any more specific really, because this is a citizens request for the EU to come up with a solution. All they have to define is the problem. IF they get enough signatures the EU has to give an answer, so what the solution ends up being is still very unclear. -
I wonder who are the proposers for this request.
Asking the govt. to take ownership of a social network, is like screaming to be controlled.
Let's not sustain or share this initiative in any way.
@77nn you can read who they are on the website of the European citizens initiative.
It seems like there is a large number of people who really call for a government subsidised social media infrastructure, so we shall see how the initiative does once it’s open for signatures. It’s only registered now.. they have a couple of months to open it up to signatures. -
@Gina @hpod16 Actually once you realise the length of time large orgs have been freeloading off unknown managed tools it make you wonder why governments and local aurhorities didn’t invest in regulated platforms sooner bearing in mind that facebook and other app owners were quite open about bringing a platform to replace local government and decision making
@Shephallmassive @Gina
Sorry what are these unknown tools you speak of? -
Slightly more information about this #citizenInitiative here for a #European #SocialMedia here: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2026/000004_en
IF This reaches the required amount of signatures it will have to be examined by the European Commission. What conclusion the commission will come to I cannot predict, but it may consider the option of building on existing infrastructure *cough* #mastodon *cough* …
These processes take quite a long time, but I’ll keep updating here@hpod16 how would they handle moderation?
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@hpod16 how would they handle moderation?
@Robo
That’s a good question. Let’s wait for the officers to get more specific with their proposal. For now, the little bit of text and linked is all I’ve seen.. and all they’re asking is for the European commission to establish this, so they might not even have the detail details ironed out. They don’t really have to.. a citizen initiative is at its core just a good tool to show what citizens really care about -
@hpod16 Why must it be *cough* Mastodon?
There is plenty of other stuff around AND the magic word is decentralized ! https://getmona.app/rich_text/966659855104@no_brainer @hpod16 <joke> Mastodon do not exist anyone know this, it's fake news that mastodon exist, even your account on mastodon.social do not exist since we live in a simulation </joke>
No seriously, i would prefer them to actually allow a new one but only if this new one actually support full federation.
So company that are afraid of being impersonated can go on this new one, while remaining fully compatible with decentralised mastodon.
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Slightly more information about this #citizenInitiative here for a #European #SocialMedia here: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2026/000004_en
IF This reaches the required amount of signatures it will have to be examined by the European Commission. What conclusion the commission will come to I cannot predict, but it may consider the option of building on existing infrastructure *cough* #mastodon *cough* …
These processes take quite a long time, but I’ll keep updating here@hpod16 collection of signatures starting soon
can't wait! -
The European Commission has registered a new Citizen Initiative, calling for a European social media platform.
In detail: The initiative invites the Commission to establish, through a legislative act, “a public social media platform at the European level”. That "would form an alternative to the current platforms and work as a service for the society, be funded by the society and be under its oversight”.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_522@hpod16 oh the hypocrisy. European union is the slave master. Old world is gone dinosaurs in Belgium still dreaming.
