#WSocial will open up their beta program today… and I have a SCOOP for you: it appears that they have quietly gone closed-source!

[_elena@mastodon.social]

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.

: https://web.archive.org/web/20260617083436/https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rentzhog_kind-of-cool-to-see-ursula-von-der-leyen-ugcPost-7472769475885461504-hwct/

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.

#privacy #SurveillanceCapitalism #EUBigTech

[sanzky@masto.es]

@_elena she must be getting a cut or something, right?

[razemix@mamutovo.cz]

@sanzky @_elena Definitely seems like it.

[bekopharm@indieweb.social]

@_elena after your last article ott I'm not even surprised. You listed all the red flags nicely before

[bjoern@social.sengotta.net]

@_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

[6ff334e@roko.basilisk.technology]

@_elena even without being into the background of that topic right now, everything in me screams “this is wrong”

[contrasocial@mastodon.social]

@_elena @EUCommission @aral

Of course, because the EU has never had a problem with what the US does domestically in terms of things like surveillance, information control, censorship etc, they just want to be able to do it for themselves.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@contrasocial

[mabande@mastodon.social]

@Razemix @sanzky Likely not a direct cut, but a sense of opportunity. As @_elena said: mandatory ID checks.

Helps quell dissent against authoritarianism.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

Latest SCOOP on #WSocial:

The European Commission Spokesperson for tech sovereignty Thomas Reigner just migrated his ATproto account from Bluesky (open source) to W Social (closed-source). How ironic!

: https://clearsky.app/thomasregnier.ec.europa.eu/profile

And now excuse me as I go pick up my child from daycare. I'll be intermittently online for the rest of the day. Thank you for all your boosts and comments!

#DigitalSovereignty #OpenWashing #EuropeWashing #SovereigntyWashing

[altim@mastodon.nl]

@_elena Sigh

@EUCommission @aral

[altim@mastodon.nl]

@_elena Sovereignty washing

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@altim open-washing, sovereignty-washing, Euro-washing... they should open a chain of laundromats

[streetcoder@mastodon.social]

@_elena OK, we should send some letters and organise some public "demonstration" to show that we already have a much better alternative in place.

Otherwise she and the other politicians will never know that the Fediverse is already relevant and is much more democratic and digitally independent than Bluesky/W Social could ever be.

Or maybe they already know and it's all due to lobby, but than it would be even more important.

[mactunag@gts.eunach.scot]

@_elena Why not eurosky? Bonkers

[smallcircles@social.coop]

@_elena @aral @EUCommission

Unbelievable, and really disheartening. What a farce. I just commented yesterday that "sovereignty" had become this new fad, a business buzzword to indicate where the low-hanging revenue is for the big enterprises, like earlier the hollow phrase of "digital transformation" (digital transformation for the purpose of what?). This more anecdotal proof that this is indeed the case..

https://social.coop/@smallcircles/116759881586257835

[ikuturso@mastodon.social]

@Mabande I think it's more just being clueless and wsocial being very well politically connected so they are able to convince these politicians to do this. It was evident this was their stategy from day one with the announcement at Davos etc. but I wouldn't necessarily have bet on them being this successful with it.

Ultimately this might still not mean that much though.

@Razemix @sanzky @_elena

[hwll@sunny.garden]

@_elena please, my European friends, you mustn't comply.

[baalroga@piaille.fr]

@_elena for fuck sake they won't ever learn!

Yesterday, I watched this video https://videos.assemblee-nationale.fr/video.18843051_69fb3ac192f70.vulnerabilites-systemiques-dans-le-secteur-du-numerique--table-ronde-sur-le-logiciel-libre-6-mai-2026 with @renchap where he explained how public administrations just want an access to the service, not operate it and it grinds my gear so fuckin much

[feyter@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@_elena @EUCommission @aral W Social has all the checkmarks for a scam to collect public funding...

Please use the money to found open source project that actually do work for all europeans (and humanity in general).