<![CDATA[“My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU.]]>“My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. We don’t need that. We don’t need more European surveillance capitalists and people farmers. We need ethical alternatives working for the common good.”

– Yours truly, in @_elena’s excellent expose on W Social.

https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-public-institutions-and-the-theater-of-european-digital-sovereignty/

Do read the article to the end, especially noting the bit about the composition of their board of advisors, which includes an ex-Google AI lead and an ex-Paypal Chief [Violate Your] Privacy Officer who now works at Tools for Humanity (Sam Altman’s “Sci-fi dystopia? Hold my beer…” identity farming startup that wants to scan your eyeballs).

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/ffed8b33-d03e-408d-8a80-3a8ddf952fed/my-fear-is-that-w-social-is-just-another-for-profit-big-tech-startup-that-happens-to-be-based-in-the-eu.RSS for NodeFri, 19 Jun 2026 11:48:09 GMTWed, 17 Jun 2026 09:26:56 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:39:01 GMT]]>@_elena @aral If only the EU elite were less corrupt than the US elite..

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.coop/users/gert/statuses/116765015492958273https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.coop/users/gert/statuses/116765015492958273Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:39:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:05:05 GMT]]>@aral @_elena If Europe can’t get this right, no wonder it feels so hopeless here in Canada expecting our politicians to migrate away from American big tech.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://thecanadian.social/ap/users/116267398334895264/statuses/116764882088818398https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://thecanadian.social/ap/users/116267398334895264/statuses/116764882088818398Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:05:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:44:28 GMT]]>@matus_chochlik @aral @_elena

I don't know if all of us are Gen X or early Millenials, but I suspect we are and if so we all lived through an era in Europe where the Government had direct overall control of all communications via the PTT (Post, Telegraph and Telephone) administration - I think a lot of European leaders want to go back to those days (but without renationalising the telecoms companies, which would at least have /some/ benefits if they concentrated on the infrastructure which is still mostly a monopoly everywhere)

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/vfrmedia/statuses/116764801005392548https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.tchncs.de/users/vfrmedia/statuses/116764801005392548Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:44:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:44:24 GMT]]>What fucks me the most about this is that Mastodon (the company) is a fucking german company.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://goblin.band/notes/anlg7u9rgxfmr5syhttps://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://goblin.band/notes/anlg7u9rgxfmr5syWed, 17 Jun 2026 09:44:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:41:50 GMT]]>@_elena “Journalists”

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116764790648911912https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116764790648911912Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:41:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:39:35 GMT]]>@aral Thanks Aral. I wish I didn't have to write them, but there are literally ZERO journalists investigating W 🥲

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116764781837631092https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116764781837631092Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:39:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:35:48 GMT]]>@aral @_elena I wouldn't call them clueless; people like von der Leyen know *very* well, what they are doing.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/matus_chochlik/statuses/116764766908100687https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/matus_chochlik/statuses/116764766908100687Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:35:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:34:04 GMT]]>@_elena Clueless (corrupt?) fools.

Also: my pleasure. Thank you for your excellent exposés.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116764760084494019https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116764760084494019Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:34:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to “My fear is that W Social is just another for-profit Big Tech startup that happens to be based in the EU. on Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:31:17 GMT]]>@aral thank you again for your EXCELLENT analysis Aral!

BTW did you see this? 😮

https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116764738020685078

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116764749198863746https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116764749198863746Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:31:17 GMT