Post #2211545
2026-05-08 05:41 UTC
Replies (33)
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@_elena@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 05:47
Regarding my W Social exposé: it was months in the making and I could have written a LOT more, showing additional examples of technical blunders, but I kept it "brief" at 3500 words 😅 I ran out of characters to tag all the awesome people I mentioned in the piece: @doktorzjivago@mastodonsweden.se (thanks for the top notch meme), @tom@tomkahe.com @mapache@hachyderm.io and @Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange And special thanks to people who volunteered to proof-read a draft and gave me fantastic feedback: @bitzero@corteximplant.net and @DataKnightmare@mastodon.xyz It takes a village ❤️
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@michaelmathy@mastodon.online 2026-05-08 05:55
@_elena@mastodon.social are you sure it is / was a hype ? To be honest, beside you, I never heard about W Social, at least from the people I follow, the news sites in my RSS reader, ...
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@luca@sironi.xyz 2026-05-08 05:59
@_elena@mastodon.social I have a very partial view on #atmosphere based on bridged accounts. Of all the people I know reporting to being interested in this w thing, no one did effectively mentioned or tried #eurosky , that is already available and people can migrate to at no social cost.
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@karlos@mindly.social 2026-05-08 06:11
@_elena@mastodon.social „Issue no.1: How W Social ignored existing European initiatives“ I would say: They ignored all non-commercial media. And mastodon = european? Mostly. But it doesn’t mather. „Es gibt keine Nationalstaaten mehr“ is a trent un SF shows :) #wsocial #raumpatrouille
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@jan@social.dytrych.cloud 2026-05-08 06:13
@_elena@mastodon.social great article! What I expect is that many ppl will just go for it! "It's European and screw it that they need my ID." The only issue is that I can theoretically create Bluesky account and still communicate with W social accounts. So what's the point of checking ppl if you can still enter through window if door requires an ID. Also I think Mastodon/Fediverse needs some lobby in EC and European parliament, that's something we can learn from W Chat case.
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@MrLee@aus.social 2026-05-08 06:35
@_elena@mastodon.social Thanks for the deep dive. It does leave me asking: what can we learn from this to help us promote the Fediverse? Perhaps a spoof website called "Euro Social" that just links to Fediverse 😉 🙂
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@TheComfortableSpotPodcast@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 06:41
@_elena@mastodon.social the worst thing about WSocial is that it's criminaly boring.
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@keul@fosstodon.org 2026-05-08 06:52
@_elena@mastodon.social great spelunking!
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@chefx@defcon.social 2026-05-08 06:54
@_elena@mastodon.social I didn't know W Social was such a dishonest project, good to know. I won't be using it if it requires my id anyways, but I'll also warn my friends.
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@gelbphoenix@social.gelbphoenix.de 2026-05-08 06:57
This is a very good exposé, @_elena@mastodon.social. And W Social like this looks like an (un-)intentional attempt to weaken the upcoming European digital sovereignty.
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@atomictangerine@c.im 2026-05-08 06:57
@_elena@mastodon.social Never heard of W Social, but thank you for your critical analysis! What do you think about Eurosky?
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@MichelPatrice@jasette.facil.services 2026-05-08 07:23
@_elena@mastodon.social Après cinéaste et photographe, tu pourrais maintenant ajouter journaliste d'enquête. Merci pour cet article très fouillé et très recherché.
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@feyter@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-05-08 07:56
@_elena@mastodon.social At least for me it's clear... W social is a financial project to grap some founding money. It's not a project with European sovereignty in mind or with sovereignty for Europeans. Therefore, it should be avoided.
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@johan@social.codefor.nl 2026-05-08 07:58
@_elena@mastodon.social cc @FediVariety@mastodon.social
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@BjornW@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 08:01
@_elena@mastodon.social thank you, for doing the work journalism / media should have been doing!
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@alpacamale@social.cologne 2026-05-08 08:12
@_elena@mastodon.social Monet being like: Am I a joke to you?
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@simonzerafa@infosec.exchange 2026-05-08 08:18
@_elena@mastodon.social I've also seen references to a BlackSky SM platform which seems to be another Bluesky clone? 🙂🤷♂️
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@m4lvin@goto.fiets.pizza 2026-05-08 08:24
@_elena@mastodon.social Thank you for all the research and writing it up this way! Bookmarking it for anyone who will mention "W" to me.
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@lou@social.peakx.com 2026-05-08 08:51
@_elena@mastodon.social thanks for unmasking the effort. looking forward to the complete unmasking of who is behind it.
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@hannes99@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 08:55
@_elena@mastodon.social and #Wedium (again W) is just as shady. https://www.rnd.de/wirtschaft/wedium-und-w-social-jetzt-kommen-die-europaeischen-social-media-alternativen-RY5VRNGZXFDXFBCUNSZMZRM6SY.html English 🇬🇧 ALT text
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@damianbuho@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 17:24
@_elena@mastodon.social excellent investigation, thank you for putting the work.
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@gimulnautti@mastodon.green 2026-05-08 09:05
@_elena@mastodon.social Same shit as US big tech, wearing an EU mask… Which is what I think a lot of this sovereignty hype will boil down to: A lot of US companies will establish subsidies, that will ”Eurowash” their products. In the background the data access for them stays, and nothing changes. We use the same products under a different name and somebody gets a cut. Neoliberal corporatism is an ideology, and this is the result. So very few people can even see it.
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@witchescauldron@kolektiva.social 2026-05-08 09:19
@_elena@mastodon.social more mess to compost, it's a signal-to-noise issue that makes these people evil... left to themselves they are pointless so not much of a problem.
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@Gina@fosstodon.org 2026-05-08 09:54
@_elena@mastodon.social 🔥🔥🔥
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@jzb@hachyderm.io 2026-05-08 09:57
@_elena@mastodon.social Doing the Lord's Work (TM) -- awesome.
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@mick@cosocial.ca 2026-05-08 09:58
@_elena@mastodon.social we have one of these too! https://gandersocial.ca
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@ziclaud@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 10:10
@_elena@mastodon.social also, BeReal is French
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@jaj@mastodon.social 2026-05-08 10:18
@_elena@mastodon.social Why do they do stupid things like that when they could just spin up a Mastodon instance
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@wraptile@fosstodon.org 2026-05-08 10:23
@_elena@mastodon.social isn't that like, the point of decentralization and open source? The only real criticism of blue sky is that it's owned by American VCs
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@Sleepypanda@sw-development-is.social 2026-05-08 10:41
@_elena@mastodon.social There was TV news in Germany recently talking about alternatives and WSocial was one of them. The representative talked about how they made the network‘s algorithm more user-friendly and I thought „Who tf needs a freaking algorithm other than people-I-follow-latest-first or simply-everything???“ An algorithm is their way of guiding news and communication. Who still wants that?????
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@MarkChristopherson@social.vivaldi.net 2026-05-08 11:13
@_elena@mastodon.social Thank you, this kind of work is so important and sadly underappreciated. The difficulty for a lot of people (like me!) is not really understanding the tech we're using. So we end up trusting whatever we're told. Hopefully, articles like this will gradually educate people so they understand how to make their choices align with their principles.
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@gabrielmarkley@techhub.social 2026-05-08 12:03
@_elena@mastodon.social Very well written. Thank you! It is surprising in today's age that news does not include this type of investigative research or thought but instead stops at the 5 sec sound bit that serves a few attention seeking moments vs improving the larger social fabric of life.
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@Catha@masto.es 2026-05-08 12:19
@_elena@mastodon.social I've read about it once, when the EU made the announcement of intending to make such place, but never heard of it again. Maybe because it didn'5 interest me (or because I was sceptical, like the "yeah duh .. a Google-is-still-hiding-in-the-background'-social"-feeling). Although living in 2 EU-countries makes the change of reading more about it bigger you'd think, but ... No. Sorry. But thanks for your interesting 'backgroundcheck', at least I know I don't have to feel like I have missed anything, staying at masto is still the best choice. 😁