Another day, another opportunity to roast #WSocial. Grab your 🍿
W Social had been hyping up the live broadcast of Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union address for weeks.
"Watch it on W!" (You'd think they had an exclusive). Nah, it was also shown live on YouTube and X and other places.
The funniest thing is that co-founder Ingmar Rentzhog bragged in the live chat: "we are doing our best. The boradcast (sic) is truly Made in Europe."
You'd think they had built their own live streaming service. Think again: they used stream.place by Eli Mallon, an ATproto developer based in Seattle. Last time I checked, Seattle is in Washington state? U.S.A.? W, the social network of European digital sovereignty!
So I put Rentzhog on the spot and he became all defensive:
🔗: mu.social/profile/elenarossini…
But it gets better!
W Social had b
... Show more...Another day, another opportunity to roast #WSocial. Grab your 🍿
W Social had been hyping up the live broadcast of Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union address for weeks.
"Watch it on W!" (You'd think they had an exclusive). Nah, it was also shown live on YouTube and X and other places.
The funniest thing is that co-founder Ingmar Rentzhog bragged in the live chat: "we are doing our best. The boradcast (sic) is truly Made in Europe."
You'd think they had built their own live streaming service. Think again: they used stream.place by Eli Mallon, an ATproto developer based in Seattle. Last time I checked, Seattle is in Washington state? U.S.A.? W, the social network of European digital sovereignty!
So I put Rentzhog on the spot and he became all defensive:
🔗: mu.social/profile/elenarossini…
But it gets better!
W Social had been bragging that only verified W users could comment in the live chat.
Yesterday I found out that people with a blue checkmark by Bluesky could also comment.
And I have one!
It all went by really fast... At the end of the event I made sure to credit Eli Mallon and stream.place for powering the live stream. If W Social wouldn't do it, well, I would.
I find it incredible that their modus operandi is to exploit open source infrastructure, giving the impression they built everything from scratch, without ever crediting anyone.
#LSocial = Leech Social.
The open social web is a highly collaborative space and it pains me to see the parasitic behavior of certain players who just take, take, take without ever giving anything back.
The @EUCommission was in the live chat. Von der Leyen took time out from G7 meetings in June to publicize the W Social launch.
I strongly believe they picked the wrong platform, which is openwashing and sovereignwashing. I typically do not tag the EC Mastodon account in posts about W, but this time it's important. (Apologies in advance to their social media interns, I know these choices were not made by you.)
We deserve better platforms.
I will keep speaking up about W Social, the black flamingo of the open social web.
And if you disagree with what they are doing, please speak up too. W Social leaders have started resorting to ad hominem attacks, calling my posts and articles "targeted disinformation."
At first I was a lonely voice of dissent against them. Then @pallenberg joined in. My wish: from a solo, to a duet, to a whole chorus of voices speaking up ⚡
And if you want to catch up on all the W Social red flags, I wrote a series of blog posts about them:
blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-so…
(start at the bottom)
Joaquim Homrighausen
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •Or, you'd think that they would embrace what they sell:
- Privacy oriented platforms
- Open platforms
- Contribute to OSS / FOSS
- European (hosted) solutions only
Like:
@pixelfed
@peertube
@Mastodon
But hey, what do I know, I'm only a European OSS/FOSS developer, hoster, and promoter 😎
@EUCommission @pallenberg
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Conny Nasch and Gurre Vildskägg reshared this.
ticho
in reply to Joaquim Homrighausen • • •They don't want open technology, they want something they control.
"Open" is just there for PR purposes, but it pisses them off that a bunch of peasants could have a say.
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to ticho • • •they definitely picked an open network because ATproto had already 40 million users.
Too bad for them that with open data, I can expose how dead W Social really is: aseachange.com/@elena/statuses…
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
2026-09-15 10:19:30
they definitely picked an open network because ATproto had already 40 million users.
Too bad for them that with open data, I can expose how dead W Social really is: aseachange.com/@elena/statuses…
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
2026-09-15 10:19:30
Gurre Vildskägg reshared this.
Fascismus delenda est
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •argv[-1]
in reply to Fascismus delenda est • • •If it's lying then it's doing an atrociously bad job of it.
@elena
Kaybee's toots
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •It wouldn't surprise me if some people also get rich of it doing it.. But that's just guessing so far 😅
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to Kaybee's toots • • •thanks.
Considering how moribund the network is, I highly doubt they can start monetizing anytime soon (or ever!)
👀 mu.social/profile/elenarossini…
@EUCommission @pallenberg
Elena Rossini ⁂ (@elenarossini.com)
mu⏩︎VOTE⏪︎ ᶜʸⁿⁱᶜⁱˢᵐ⁼ᵃᶜᶜᵉᵖᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉ (Ben Royce)
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •as an american deeply disappointed in my country, i look to europe for solace as a more sane place
and i am disgusted to find through elena's expose that there are europeans who are just as much craven grasping losers as so many americans
⏩︎VOTE⏪︎ ᶜʸⁿⁱᶜⁱˢᵐ⁼ᵃᶜᶜᵉᵖᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉ (Ben Royce)
Unknown parent • • •⏩︎VOTE⏪︎ ᶜʸⁿⁱᶜⁱˢᵐ⁼ᵃᶜᶜᵉᵖᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉ (Ben Royce)
Unknown parent • • •the problem i have with this formulation is that it is self-fulfilling prophecy
to escape such fates we must fight for better
we might not succeed
but we will definitely fail if we don't fight, and resigned attitudes lead to not fighting
cynical defeatism is merely acceptance of the unacceptable
i by no means champion airhead optimism
but premature capitulation and toxic positivity are not our only two choices
Jigme Datse likes this.
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⏩︎VOTE⏪︎ ᶜʸⁿⁱᶜⁱˢᵐ⁼ᵃᶜᶜᵉᵖᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉ (Ben Royce), Jigme Datse and Gurre Vildskägg reshared this.
Alberto Cottica
in reply to ⏩︎VOTE⏪︎ ᶜʸⁿⁱᶜⁱˢᵐ⁼ᵃᶜᶜᵉᵖᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉ (Ben Royce) • • •No. Another alternative, as Swanigan proposed, is fight the Long Defeat, and forestall darkness for a time.
noemamag.com/its-time-to-give-…
@tanavit @elena @EUCommission @pallenberg
It’s Time To Give Up Hope For A Better Climate & Get Heroic | NOEMA
Pamela Swanigan (NOEMA)Captain Joanway
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •Thank you Elena, for your ongoing work on this.
I am continually dismayed by W Social - what it is, how it's presented, and by whom - and this just serves as another depressing example as to why.
@EUCommission @pallenberg
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to Captain Joanway • • •Captain Joanway
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to Captain Joanway • • •ploum
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •: BoratCasting is Very Nice European technology!
ploum.net/2026-01-22-why-no-eu…
Why there’s no European Google?
ploum.netElena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to ploum • • •hahaha yes indeed!
I will forever troll them from now on and comment with the hashtag #WBoratCasting for all their future livestreams 😂
atro_city
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to atro_city • • •they were commenting in the W Live chat earlier this morning, during the livestream. Well, some poor intern was.
EC interns, sending you a hug, I'm sorry for the negative comments you may receive about cloWn Social 🫶
Bebadefabo
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •don't stress out too much. Some of this might be tilting at windmills. W social is the definition of dead Internet theory. 90% of accounts have never posted and of the 10% that have, 90% of those have only posted once or now then 6 months ago. So you're left with 1-2% active user base.
This thing is going to fall apart on it's own. I'm glad folks like you are working to build something better.
argv[-1]
in reply to Bebadefabo • • •For reference, according to fediverse.observer/stats in September so far, about 3.8% of Fedi accounts were actively used.
@elena @pallenberg
Fediverse Observer checks all sites in the fediverse and gives you an easy way to find a home from a map or list or automatically.
fediverse.observerElena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to Bebadefabo • • •Søren Have
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •Tommaso Gagliardoni
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •thanks for exposing this, great job! The fedi-washing continues 🤦♂️ I have also written before why BlueSky is a centralized trap and Mastodon is better:
gagliardoni.net/#20250818_batt…
#mastodon #bluesky #fedi #fediverse #atproto #digitalsovereignty #fediwashing #eu #europe #europa #politics
Tommaso Gagliardoni's Homepage
gagliardoni.netBeachbum reshared this.
Beachbum
in reply to Tommaso Gagliardoni • • •Victoria ⁂
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •I'm so disgusted they refused to credit Eli's hard work. If it wasn't him posting about the collab, we would discover only when trying to log in to comment during the stream. Which is not that surprising, it's basically the same behavior as when they announced W at Davos without mentioning the fediverse or saying they were using atproto, we had to discover that ourselves.
May this be a clear lesson to other atproto devs not to trust them.
#WSocial
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to Victoria ⁂ • • •argv[-1]
Unknown parent • • •Jacob Alexander Tice
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •Txo!?
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
in reply to Txo!? • • •thank you! ❤️
I find it important to expose the black sheep of the open social web, before they reel in too many people (who are unaware of their shenanigans).
The media runs such glowing pieces about W, you'd think they were on their payroll