Post by @elena@aseachange.com

2026-08-11 07:29 UTC

Good morning Fedi friends. Is anybody curious about how the #WSocial experiment is going? You know, the private, for profit "European answer to X" endorsed by the European Commission, which is a fork of Bluesky and has quietly gone closed-source before its beta launch (à la #TruthSocial)? I've got numbers for you! Nearly two months in, W Social has almost the same number of accounts as #Eurosky... You know, the European fork of Bluesky that does NOT require government IDs to post. W Social: 23.5k accounts Eurosky: 24.8k accounts In order to post on W Social you need to provide your government ID and go through a 13-step verification process. So far 4.5k accounts are verified but only 2036 (as of this morning) have ever published a single post or reply. There is a handy website - https://pdsls.dev - that allows you to monitor the "firehose" of any ATproto-powered PDS. Inspired by @pallenberg@mastodon.social and his awesome videos (example: https://mu.social/profile/palle.eurosky.social/post/3mskkqrrc522l) I have been comparing the live activities of the two networks. The difference is SHOCKING. W Social is largely a zombie, dormant network, with a high number of accounts that do not interact. Eurosky by contrast shows very lively activity. The screenshot I grabbed yesterday shows a side-by-side comparison of their firehose over a 27 minute period. W Social had a total of 240 events (follows, likes, posts...) whereas Eurosky registered 7596 events in the same time interval. A couple of days ago I downloaded their PDS and saw that 67,8% of their accounts have 0 follows, 0 followers and 0 posts. That's what I mean when I call it a "zombie network." W Social's CEO says they plan to start monetizing by introducing ads in 2027. WITH THESE NUMBERS?!? Sure Jan. I love how with the transparency of open data you can't really use the standard playbook of CEO hype and hubris. Because we can all see their numbers. And they are BAAAAD. I have been feeling very strong second hand embarrassment for the European Commission and especially Ursula von der Leyen - who went so far as to publicize the W launch in between G7 meetings in June. I wonder how they feel about it... and if they are even aware of how badly the network is doing right now. I suspect the network can be on life support for a year or two but things aren't looking good. Thought you should know! For my series of articles about W Social, check out: https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/ I may have another one coming in the fall...

Replies (12)

@tml@mementomori.social 2026-08-11 07:40

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social "endorsed" by the commission? In what way?

Open ##4492070
@darkpixel@infosec.exchange 2026-08-11 07:52

@elena@aseachange.com If W does not interact, it is therefore, a botfarm and not real people. The identification process are probably for real people signing up.

Open ##4492338
@charlie2alpha@fedi.charlie2alpha.org 2026-08-11 10:26

@elena@aseachange.com I haven't followed this topic from the start but I have a simple question: why were these networks created in the first place? To replace what? Bluesky was supposed to be a Twitter replacement (or wannabe...), these are replacements for what exactly? And why would anyone want to switch to these networks?

Open ##4496019
@pa27@mastodon.social 2026-08-11 09:03

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social Not to mention wSocial sounds rather Trump-esque, whereas Eurosky sounds nice and European...

Open ##4498672
@leanderlindahl@mastodon.social 2026-08-11 07:37

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social It hurts and stings so much that our presumable leaders and representatives like von der Leyen completely ignore the Fediverse and Mastodon for years and years and then immediately jump on this scam artist social without even vetting it properly. @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu

Open ##4500454
@Attac_Norden@norden.social 2026-08-11 09:12

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social https://youtu.be/uPxOmMFzWmM?si=6XAbYbbJE0NHmxLn

Open ##4502524
@mndflayr@metalhead.club 2026-08-11 10:05

@elena@aseachange.com Thanks for the update! Concerning von der Leyen - I cringe on everything she does, anyway.🤷 Otoh, I doubt she even realises. I doubt she ever used social media, anyway, and any accounts are run by some "social media team" that will be happy to post wherever they are told to as long as they get paid.

Open ##4502525
@morqendi@mstdn.social 2026-08-11 10:24

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social Lol, I thought it should be an alternative to LinkedIn. While that would be cool (instead of throwing my data to America, I'd prefer EU's data protection...), I guess W Social died already. Thanks for the info!

Open ##4502527
@Nic3@mastodon.social 2026-08-11 10:29

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social mastodon is better right? Can't somebody tell EU? #UseMastodon #Buyeuropean #MastodonisGreat

Open ##4502846
@Oyu_Fka@mastodon.social 2026-08-11 12:50

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social So pleased to hear 'W' is tanking. As far as I could see, it was nothing much more than an underhand attempt at collecting detailed user IDs under the guise of social media. There was no naiveté in von der Leyen's publicising it's launch - the EC wants your data. Glad to see so few fell for it! 👏👏

Open ##5198184
@hiphopheaven@mastodon.social 2026-08-11 13:25

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social i forgot that it exists

Open ##5198187
@umbeebmu@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-08-11 13:41

@elena@aseachange.com @pallenberg@mastodon.social Grazie Elena for the update. I was actually tempted to try out W but I stopped before the required 13 steps authentication process I will have a look at the alternative you are mentioning

Open ##5198188