<![CDATA[Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social?]]>Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? No? Me neither, but here we are…

So before we start, let’s recount the whole dystopian raison d’être of these Davosian clowns: to be a EU®opean “alternative to X” that ­– cue the 1984 theme tune – verifies your identity to ensure that only “real people” are on it (real is what your government says it is).

Now, let’s fast forward to last week, when TikTok set up an account on W Social.

That’s nice, isn’t it? One surveillance capitalist lending their support to another? Kumbaya and all that. The only problem? (spoiler alert), it wasn’t TikTok. (Shocking, I know.)

The account, Identity Verified™ by EU X – sorry, W Social, was a spam account and immediately labelled as such by BlueSky moderators. (Don’t you love a “decentralised” system where a post on an EU server, accessed from another EU server, is moderated by our benevolent Big Brother in Trumpland, by the way? I know it just warms the cockles of my heart. So much sovereignty! But I digress…)

So @_elena calls them out (someone has to while @EUCommission is busy preparing for their honeymoon after expressing their undying devotion to W Social recently on every social platform¹):

https://mu.social/profile/elenarossini.com/post/3mqob7shxks2t

Anna Zeiter – W CEO, Stanford’s own, and ex-eBay executive (such sovereignty) – replies with this absolute zinger:

> “We are just verifying if some [sic] is a human and at least 18 years old. Users are then free to choose their own user name. This (human) user apparently chose the name TikTok.“ (https://mu.social/profile/anna.wsocial.eu/post/3mqoepm7m2k2z)

Read that as many times as you like until it really sinks in.

These incompetent clowns (dangerous competent clowns but incompetent clowns nevertheless) make people go through a ridiculous 13-step identity verification stage² and then… umm… you get to choose whatever identity you want.

🤡🤡🤡

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they’re incompetent. It would be worse if they were competent, given they’re a closed-source venture-capital-funded startup determined to prove your identity.

> “Yes we have a business model, it’s not a philanthropy, we are not a B corp, we actually want to make money.” – Anna Zeiter³

But, what I want to know is this: Why has @EUCommission embraced a proprietary, closed-source, corporate ghost town with 14,300 accounts, 90% of which have not posted even once (in other words, with only 1,259 accounts that have ever posted)⁴ when there is a thriving non-corporate fediverse with millions of active people on it.

Could it have anything to do with identity verification, surveillance, and control?

And if so, why can’t they even get that right?

Looking forward to seeing how long @EUCommission can drag the corpse of W Social around before people realise it’s dead.

Oh, and how does this make the whole “European alternatives” thing look? Not good. Not because there aren’t excellent European alternatives but because the folks at the commission are either too clueless or too corrupt to recognise and support them.

So, yeah, how’s your Monday going?

¹ e.g., https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116770333053823108, etc.

² https://aseachange.com/@elena/statuses/01KVD55YBYVM3B46ACQTECDMT2

³ https://blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-social-unconventional-beginnings-strategic-pitches-conflicting-signals/ (from the YouTube video that they since deleted. Nice transparency there, clowns.)

⁴ Run this script in Node 18+ to reproduce the numbers from their PDS yourself: https://codeberg.org/aral/gists/src/branch/main/wsocial-pds-stats.js Also see https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-a-broken-ghost-town/ and https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-and-the-beauty-of-open-data/

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/topic/ff2b684f-1ba3-478f-aebd-7514d42b5b1c/want-an-update-on-the-weekend-at-bernie-s-clown-show-that-is-w-socialRSS for NodeWed, 22 Jul 2026 21:13:08 GMTMon, 20 Jul 2026 10:59:10 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:14:16 GMT]]>@kcarr2015 @aral @_elena
Spend a little time on X if you're brave and then come back and tell me that nonsense thing again.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://ieji.de/users/oraculix/statuses/116964514645097688https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://ieji.de/users/oraculix/statuses/116964514645097688Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:14:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:11:24 GMT]]>@oraculix @aral @_elena @EUCommission
Yeah, but there's more evidence that it does tho, and now you're just spouting nonesense.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mstdn.social/users/kcarr2015/statuses/116964503334460544https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mstdn.social/users/kcarr2015/statuses/116964503334460544Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:11:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:01:35 GMT]]>@aral @_elena @EUCommission

»Looking forward to seeing how long @EUCommission can drag the corpse of W Social around before people realise it’s dead.«

Perhaps you've heard of the German "DE-Mail" system that was meant to become de facto mandatory if you wanted to have an email exchange with German authorities. They also had an ID verification process, were a closed-source walled garden and — surprise! — noone was interested.

German government rode that dead horse for over 25 years IIRC, stopping better and more pragmatic alternatives in their tracks.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://ieji.de/users/oraculix/statuses/116964464736443776https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://ieji.de/users/oraculix/statuses/116964464736443776Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:01:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:50:09 GMT]]>@kcarr2015 @aral @_elena @EUCommission

There's a ton of evidence that posting under one's _real_ identity doesn't stop people from posting hate speech or direct threats. Even some EU politicians had to experience that.

"Anonymity facilitates bad behavior" is a myth.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://ieji.de/users/oraculix/statuses/116964419818851175https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://ieji.de/users/oraculix/statuses/116964419818851175Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:50:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:20:06 GMT]]>@luca Eurosky may be better in some regards but it is not really ideal either. As the most basic thing it still results in depending on Bluesky which really should not be an option if we are trying to do European digital sovereignty.

I doubt either will make much of a mark though. W because getting a few EU politicians will not make masses ID verify. Eurosky because masses do not care enough and will not figure out PDSes.

@ajhalili2006 @aral @_elena @eurosky.social

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ikuturso/statuses/116962886053121865https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/ikuturso/statuses/116962886053121865Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:20:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Wed, 22 Jul 2026 08:58:19 GMT]]>@aral @_elena @EUCommission finally someone can impersonate (and apparently be the "authentic") Elon Musk, can't wait for the really serious parody accounts from this 😂

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/squareScarletCougar/statuses/116962800407439359https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/squareScarletCougar/statuses/116962800407439359Wed, 22 Jul 2026 08:58:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 10:23:27 GMT]]>@aral @kcarr2015 @_elena @EUCommission How can we safeguard our private data when our most basic right — the right to live safely — is still under threat?
We received your greetings, your love, and your solidarity.

Please know that we are proud of you, and we see your help and support as one of the greatest sources of hope that keeps us going and strengthens our resilience🤍🫂🕊️

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116183607298703759/statuses/116957472852229458https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116183607298703759/statuses/116957472852229458Tue, 21 Jul 2026 10:23:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 10:16:54 GMT]]>@aral @kcarr2015 @_elena @EUCommission Thank you so much, my dear friend @aral
Regarding the Signal app, I tried to use it, but I couldn’t manage to complete the process. Could you please help me or guide me on how to use it properly? I would truly appreciate your support.
As for surveillance in Gaza, privacy has almost completely disappeared. When a person’s life itself is no longer protected and death continues around us, talking about protecting our information becomes painfully difficult

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116183607298703759/statuses/116957447112862275https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116183607298703759/statuses/116957447112862275Tue, 21 Jul 2026 10:16:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:35:45 GMT]]>@aral
Good God, everyone read this ^^

and see what a fuck you in the face shit show looks like when you put the EU Commission in charge of digital sovereignty and press 'go'. An LLM would do better.

What? No, I didn't say that.

@_elena @EUCommission

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/happyborg/statuses/116957285284632540https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/happyborg/statuses/116957285284632540Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:35:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:21:38 GMT]]>@_elena I tried signing up through the app and it took forever to try and get verified on the W Identity app, so I cancelled it and totally forgot and then I tried again the other day and my invite code was bad. How many days is the email good for?

@luca @ajhalili2006 @aral

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://wizard.casa/objects/019f83fb-1709-7e80-b05c-c36655a00188https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://wizard.casa/objects/019f83fb-1709-7e80-b05c-c36655a00188Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:21:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:06:20 GMT]]>@Layan2002 @kcarr2015 @_elena @EUCommission Layan, you, sadly, have a much worse threat model in Gaza. Gaza is under total surveillance by the occupying Israeli forces.

I would still strongly urge you to use Signal for private communication but you are faced with a malicious state-level entity and the means they have to use on a captive population.

A lot of what we’re discussing is for places where we’re trying to hold off such levels of government surveillance. Because, given half a chance, our own governments would use the exact same techniques and technologies on their own people. In fact, many of them are studying and learning from Israel’s actions in Gaza, and Israel is using Gaza as a human experimentation zone to prove the usefulness of its weapons and surveillance tech; which our governments in the west are very eager to buy.

It’s all very, very fucked up.

Sending you and your family all my love. Stay safe + here’s to finding a path towards brighter days together.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116957169622697828https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116957169622697828Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:06:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:56:18 GMT]]>@luca I was planning to do a side-by-side comparison once they hit the 20k user mark.

Thing is, the W User feed is remarkably different from the rest of the ATmosphere (or even the fediverse).

As far as I can tell, most verified users are middle aged white men posting links to articles and commenting on them with one-two sentences. I found very little original content there... and new sign-ups have slowed down dramatically

@ajhalili2006 @aral @eurosky.social@bsky.brid.gy

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116957130147826172https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116957130147826172Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:56:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:10:41 GMT]]>@aral I took a peek at the projects @EUCommission founded with one of their initiatives a while back. All noname dead in the water stuff. So, I'm not surprised they made a joke out of this as well.

At least we got some representatives to attend FOSDEM now. But the large majority seems to be blind to anything not whispered to them by a lobbyist.

Just a above government governing body with more and more power and weird voting rules. What could possibly go wrong.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.online/users/aanee/statuses/116956950804622509https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.online/users/aanee/statuses/116956950804622509Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:10:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:45:56 GMT]]>@ajhalili2006

Maybe they will start to sell instant access to VDL posts 😀

Anyway, I wonder, I'm just a guy (which I think is the best we could do, to constantly push good narrative there), how's going eurosky in terms of user stats, new users, active users, migrated users.
It would be great if we can se them outperform that other thing

@aral @_elena @eurosky.social

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://sironi.xyz/ap/users/115700305018001936/statuses/116956853458611741https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://sironi.xyz/ap/users/115700305018001936/statuses/116956853458611741Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:45:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:08:42 GMT]]>@aral @_elena @EUCommission ebin :-D

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.com.pl/ap/users/115986424820341665/statuses/116956707082804460https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.com.pl/ap/users/115986424820341665/statuses/116956707082804460Tue, 21 Jul 2026 07:08:42 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 21:09:18 GMT]]>@aral @_elena @EUCommission it's crazy how real working federation is already here but we're expected to fuck around with trash like.this. it feels like a psyop, like how oil companies promise they're gonna lower their emissions by 20% soon

Tune out the crap and join the resistance

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://furry.engineer/users/fluffykittycat/statuses/116954350133327075https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://furry.engineer/users/fluffykittycat/statuses/116954350133327075Mon, 20 Jul 2026 21:09:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:17:16 GMT]]>@aadeacon @Npars01 @kcarr2015 @_elena @EUCommission Tsk, tsk, we can’t be having that.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116954145549796217https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116954145549796217Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:17:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:07:25 GMT]]>@Npars01 @aral @kcarr2015 @_elena @EUCommission Well of course the corrupt don’t want you to know who is corrupting them, you might start getting ideas about stopping it.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/aadeacon/statuses/116954106789931773https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/aadeacon/statuses/116954106789931773Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:07:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:46:28 GMT]]>@FeralRobots @_elena @EUCommission Yeah, reads to me like “please don’t think we’re in this to do good.”

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116953788499652776https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.ar.al/users/aral/statuses/116953788499652776Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:46:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:42:13 GMT]]>@stux @aral it's been the case since June. I suppose they want to imitate the now defunct post.news https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/19/post-news-the-a16z-funded-twitter-alternative-is-shutting-down/ (sorry for the paywall)

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116953535829998749https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/_elena/statuses/116953535829998749Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:42:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:53:42 GMT]]>@aral @_elena @EUCommission

Huh

So wsocial.eu now redirects to wsocial.news

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mstdn.social/users/stux/statuses/116953345071440684https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mstdn.social/users/stux/statuses/116953345071440684Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:53:42 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:48:58 GMT]]>@aral @kcarr2015 @_elena @EUCommission

Isn't it weird that the oligarchs attacking democracy & frying the planet can remain anonymous, but they're demanding the identity of the 99% .

https://www.businessinsider.com/senate-republicans-block-disclose-act-dark-money-donors-mcconnell-whitehouse-2022-9

It's almost like 1% billionaires are afraid.
https://gizmodo.com/body-bags-found-outside-openai-hq-as-execs-increasingly-fear-for-their-lives-2000786605

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/16/800070686/community/data-centers-gold-rush-or-arms-race-is-the-crazed-haste-to-build-focused-on-profit-or-conquest-ai-and-the-path-to-totalitarian-control-buynott-nbf/

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/technology-uk/article/peter-thiel-secret-society-dialog-58fgcv7dd

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/11/how-dangerous-is-peter-thiel/

https://www.ms.now/opinion/amid-musks-paranoia-u-s-marshals-deputized-his-unqualified-security-staff

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mega-bunkers-tech-billionaires-why-builder-b2814490.html

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mstdn.social/users/Npars01/statuses/116953326474458028https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mstdn.social/users/Npars01/statuses/116953326474458028Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:48:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:20:23 GMT]]>@aral @_elena @EUCommission
ASIDE: I'm fairly skeptical about B Corps but she seems to be expressing a fundamental misunderstanding of what that phrase means.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/FeralRobots/statuses/116953214080340547https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mastodon.social/users/FeralRobots/statuses/116953214080340547Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:20:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? on Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:12:17 GMT]]>@_elena @aleksei @aral Ouch .... didn't know that]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://joinfriendica.de/objects/70c1e079-136a-5e3a-d1d3-dbf047406420https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://joinfriendica.de/objects/70c1e079-136a-5e3a-d1d3-dbf047406420Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:12:17 GMT