#WSocial will open up their beta program today… and I have a SCOOP for you: it appears that they have quietly gone closed-source!
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@_elena @themipper When I first heard about #wsocial, I had high hopes of a genuine European, privacy-preserving, open source solution.
Fool me.
Definitely won’t be joining.
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@_elena share what though?
@lefteristrip23 @_elena Share this link to the post on reddit: https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116764267869694589, or the link to the blogpost.
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This was definitely NOT on my bingo card for this year:
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen taking a moment between G7 meetings to promote the launch of the closed-source, for-profit network #WSocial.
I fear this may be a harbinger of things to come: MANDATORY AGE VERIFICATION for social media across Europe. I hope I'm wrong on this.
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#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 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:
@_elena
*dons tin foil hat*When something this fishy is going on you can be sure that a lot of money is changing hands and a "not-for-public-knowledge" agenda is being implemented behind the scenes.
IMO the answers to your top 3 questions are probably something like:
1) shhh of course but I won't acknowledge that to you.2) irrelevant--the image of being "the"
European alternative is the important thing, and besides (shhh) some components need to be hosted in places where certain inconvenient EU privacy laws don't apply, and3) Because we wouldn't be able to manipulate it or any other open source platform to our goals.
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@_elena
*dons tin foil hat*When something this fishy is going on you can be sure that a lot of money is changing hands and a "not-for-public-knowledge" agenda is being implemented behind the scenes.
IMO the answers to your top 3 questions are probably something like:
1) shhh of course but I won't acknowledge that to you.2) irrelevant--the image of being "the"
European alternative is the important thing, and besides (shhh) some components need to be hosted in places where certain inconvenient EU privacy laws don't apply, and3) Because we wouldn't be able to manipulate it or any other open source platform to our goals.
@leadore @_elena @EUCommission No tin-foil hat necessary. It’s just institutional corruption (lobbying and revolving doors).
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#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 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:
@_elena
And there's more sad news on this trap
@EUCommission @aral
@rysiek -
streetcoder
If you want to do that, pick (or set up) a single instance to push in a region. One of the primary reasons the Fediverse fails to catch on is that no one will promote a specific website. Most people don’t care about the syndication feature and, in fact, find it confusing. And no ome cares about “Mastodon” any more than they’re really hype about Joomla.Throw up a Mastodon site. Give it a pleasing front end with identifiable branding, and push the site, not the technology and people will show up and stick around.
@kichae We shouldn't push into a specific region. The internet is global and so is the Fediverse. Services are not evil because they are from a specific country.
But the whole world would be to much for one instance. Even more if we want to promote the other use cases like video, shorts, photos, podcasts, events, blogs, sport tracks, books and so on too.
The EU should help setting up instances as public infrastructure and start promoting the ones they already have, instead of lobby marketing.
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@_elena
And there's more sad news on this trap
@EUCommission @aral
@rysiek@XavCC @_elena @EUCommission @aral sigh.
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@leadore @_elena @EUCommission No tin-foil hat necessary. It’s just institutional corruption (lobbying and revolving doors).
@aral @leadore @_elena @EUCommission
"You don't need a formal conspiracy when interests converge. These people went to the same universities, they're on the same boards of directors, they're in the same country clubs, they have like interests, they don't need to call a meeting, they know what's good for them and they're getting it." - George Carlin
Also:
"It's a large club, and you're not invited." -George Carlin
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@_elena oh no, what a surprise. I really try to make a surprised face now. They must have good marketing if the even outrun Eurosky, which obviously has Euro in its name. Honestly van der Leyen was never about independence etc. @EUCommission @aral
@bjoern @_elena @EUCommission @aral
On the other hand, "Eurosky" sounds like off-brand Bluesky. I've been intentionally not reading about it for months now, and when I finally did do basic googling today, was surprised by their pitch.
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F folfdk@helvede.net shared this topic
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@_elena “for profit” is not the same as “evil.” If we want an open-source future, it has to be economically sustainable. Big Tech gets paid with our personal data; if you want the same level of service without handing over data, someone still has to pay for it. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Thermophilus For profit is definitionally exploitative – the profits are labour value withheld from workers – so, whether it’s evil or not depends on whether or not it’s evil to exploit people.
You can do commerce without profit. You can invest in your organization without profit. In fact, business expenses are explicitly not counted as profits. Only money kept by the ownership are.
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@kichae No why should I start another instance when they already have one. For whom?
I just want the EU Commission to use it and talk about it https://ec.social-network.europa.eu
But Ursula von der Leyen is not active there. Don't know if she even tried and why not?
In Germany we already have:
For federal authorities https://social.bund.de
For the state I'm living https://nrw.social
Instances for cities e.g. https://bonn.social
VIP accounts with relevance https://netzbegruenung.de/blog/das-ende-der-dominanz-microblogging-wandel-in-deutschland-in-zahlen/
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#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 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:
@_elena
Jesus christ @EUCommission are you guys fucking stupid, incompetent, corrupt or all of the above?..... -
@kichae No why should I start another instance when they already have one. For whom?
I just want the EU Commission to use it and talk about it https://ec.social-network.europa.eu
But Ursula von der Leyen is not active there. Don't know if she even tried and why not?
In Germany we already have:
For federal authorities https://social.bund.de
For the state I'm living https://nrw.social
Instances for cities e.g. https://bonn.social
VIP accounts with relevance https://netzbegruenung.de/blog/das-ende-der-dominanz-microblogging-wandel-in-deutschland-in-zahlen/
@kichae It's not me not talking and not promoting the instances I use.
It seems Ursula von der Leyen prefers W Social over Mastodon. I want to know why? Because she could have already used the EU Commission instance she is working for.
And why is W Social so important for her that it's announced during G7? She is a representative and her words have a lot of power.
I assume she has done her research on alternatives before dropping things on important meetings. Why was Mastodon not an option?
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@_elena “for profit” is not the same as “evil.” If we want an open-source future, it has to be economically sustainable. Big Tech gets paid with our personal data; if you want the same level of service without handing over data, someone still has to pay for it. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
@thermophilus @_elena sustainable doesn't mean "for profit". And all public services are not commercial activities, they have to effectively... provide a service, not make money from that.
Even the so-called efficiency is secondary. It is evident that money can be found if politics wants.
Social networks are a direct news channel, with citizen feedback, and a public square for discussion, and possibly education and information. They can also weaponized. An open decentralized tool is needed. -
@_elena
And there's more sad news on this trap
@EUCommission @aral
@rysiek@XavCC @_elena @EUCommission @rysiek Thanks for the heads up. Just unfollowed @occrp. They’re clearly not what I thought they were.
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#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 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:
@_elena @EUCommission @aral
Yes it is sad. And they will finance by Advertisement. So the roles seem clear: the payers are the directors, not the directors and not the users.
No one can see inside the code and they connect to bluesky US. At the moment I cannot see too many differences.
Maybe they have to change sth or communicate differently.
Let s have a look. -
@XavCC @_elena @EUCommission @rysiek Thanks for the heads up. Just unfollowed @occrp. They’re clearly not what I thought they were.
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@f4grx you're good
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This was definitely NOT on my bingo card for this year:
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen taking a moment between G7 meetings to promote the launch of the closed-source, for-profit network #WSocial.
I fear this may be a harbinger of things to come: MANDATORY AGE VERIFICATION for social media across Europe. I hope I'm wrong on this.
@_elena I never really trusted Ursula van der Leyen since she suggested that anyone who knows how to change a dns server is a pedophile.
It was during her time as German family minister where a proposed dns block was criticized by experts that it won’t work, since people could just change dns when she stated something similar to that. She was very stubborn to not listen to IT experts.
Only source I could find:
: 
