Do you remember the surprise announcement of a new social network in Davos this past January?
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@MrLee someone back in January registered w-social.eu and created a website encouraging people to check out the Fediverse. Sadly it's offline now but you can still see it via the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20260122071830/https://w-social.eu/
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
@_elena great spelunking!
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
@_elena I didn't know W Social was such a dishonest project, good to know. I won't be using it if it requires my id anyways, but I'll also warn my friends.
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
This is a very good exposé, @_elena. And W Social like this looks like an (un-)intentional attempt to weaken the upcoming European digital sovereignty.
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
@_elena Never heard of W Social, but thank you for your critical analysis! What do you think about Eurosky?
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This is a very good exposé, @_elena. And W Social like this looks like an (un-)intentional attempt to weaken the upcoming European digital sovereignty.
@gelbphoenix thank you Lina! And I LOVED your post about Bluesky/ATproto and mention it all the time
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@_elena honestly, looking at those sites, it seems W Social has investors behind it and has purchased press releases. And only then some real media picked up on it.
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@_elena honestly, looking at those sites, it seems W Social has investors behind it and has purchased press releases. And only then some real media picked up on it.
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@_elena seeing how gullible people on X are, though, is really something...
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@_elena seeing how gullible people on X are, though, is really something...
@ee I know!
I'm telling you, the first ten days there was ZERO fact-checking being done... and so this myth has kept circulating -
@ee I know!
I'm telling you, the first ten days there was ZERO fact-checking being done... and so this myth has kept circulating@_elena aaaaaargggggggghhh I'm sorry you had to go through that!
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
Après cinéaste et photographe, tu pourrais maintenant ajouter journaliste d'enquête.
Merci pour cet article très fouillé et très recherché.
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Après cinéaste et photographe, tu pourrais maintenant ajouter journaliste d'enquête.
Merci pour cet article très fouillé et très recherché.
@MichelPatrice hahaha merci Michel !
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
@_elena At least for me it's clear... W social is a financial project to grap some founding money. It's not a project with European sovereignty in mind or with sovereignty for Europeans.
Therefore, it should be avoided.
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
@_elena thank you, for doing the work journalism / media should have been doing!
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
@_elena Monet being like: Am I a joke to you?
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
I've also seen references to a BlackSky SM platform which seems to be another Bluesky clone?
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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:
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.
Elena Rossini (blog.elenarossini.com)
@_elena Thank you for all the research and writing it up this way!
Bookmarking it for anyone who will mention "W" to me. -
Regarding my W Social exposé: it was months in the making and I could have written a LOT more, showing additional examples of technical blunders, but I kept it "brief" at 3500 words
I ran out of characters to tag all the awesome people I mentioned in the piece: @doktorzjivago (thanks for the top notch meme), @tom @mapache and @Em0nM4stodon
And special thanks to people who volunteered to proof-read a draft and gave me fantastic feedback: @bitzero and @DataKnightmare
It takes a village
️@_elena Thanks! Let's hope the message lands!
Journalism has been disappointing. One journalist picking up on it was working for Dutch NOS. On launch she asked "Bluesky fork?" and got shut down with a "we'll share tech details later".
>Eurosky .. carefully planned out,
But also dishonest. Eurosky is an offshoot from a failed global grift now trying the Europe angle.
On launch I emailed back-and-forth with them multiple times to fix their privacy policy. Even now they make false claims.
