#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 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: -
Seems to be regular old #corruption at @EUCommission
EU institutions need to get better at saying no to corporate lobbyists.
@troed @_elena @EUCommission @aral
Yes Minister
Yes Prime Minister -
Once upon a time, JAVA
was open source.The only source whose you could be sure to have an eternal access to is the one you manage yourself, open or closed.
Opening source is mean of extending collaboration, not a guarantee of sovereignity.
An example is the French Tresor. As far as i know, it owns its computer infrastructure and has an internal computer science team. But the software is closed source.
@tanavit @_elena @EUCommission @aral
Open Source VS Source Available
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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 Somehow, I'm not surprised... The EU commission likes the corporate world, they just prefer the European one... Open source is for "those leftist hippies", not for respectable right-wing people. Capitalism helps capitalism, always.
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@_elena
Jesus christ @EUCommission are you guys fucking stupid, incompetent, corrupt or all of the above?.....@bno I'll with corrupt. Always have.
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