#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 “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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