Discussion
Amazing. W (I kid you not): A bunch of VC-funded European Big Tech assholes attempting to rewrite history by erasing the federated European alternatives that already exist to create their own centralised, surveillance-ridden X clone.
Same shit, different flag.
And I’m sure the usual fools will flock to it the moment it’s ready.
Fuck these people.
#EU #bullshit #W #BigTech #surveillance #capitalism #peopleFarming @nicolasvivant https://colter.social/@nicolasvivant/115929963687586528
lol yeah no thanks
@aral @nicolasvivant this is even more cringe than "macro hard"
@aral @nicolasvivant It will require ID verification, LOL… LMAO even
@gravitas @nicolasvivant Surely you mean LMWAO ;)
@aral Totally predictable.
@aral @nicolasvivant here is a picture of W Social's CEO on LinkedIn. "Make Europe Great Again"
@fedi @aral @nicolasvivant Cringe-worthy. At this juncture, cosplaying fascists isn’t edgy or ironic, it’s just stupid and counterproductive.
@fedi @aral @nicolasvivant ok. W definitely stands for wankers then
They're fascists then? Surely that's what the hat means?
@FediThing @fedi @aral @nicolasvivant I don't understand - why are we hating a European tech startup here? Have I missed something? Surely we want more EU startups?
@davidt @FediThing @fedi @nicolasvivant Yeah, I think you missed the exit to Bluesky and ended up at Mastodon.
@aral @nicolasvivant it’s surreal how these folks would throw any new corporate crap at us while ignoring the literal elephant in the room - that ActivityPub has already proved its point and they just need to run their instances.
–EDIT–
Oh, a closer look points to something interesting:
Anonymous accounts and automated bots are not allowed, according to the project’s backers
So how do you prevent anonymous accounts and bots?
Simple, with online identity verification!
That’s why they ignore ActivityPub 🙂
They’re trying to sell us the solution for an existential problem that they have created themselves around an emergency that doesn’t exist.
At this point any Trojan horse that can get EU citizens to swallow online identity verification can work. And if they can edulcolorate with a “but it’s a European sovereign social network!” (even if the ID verification mechanisms still rely on Google’s and Apple’s operating systems) then why not give it a try? 😄
@fabio @nicolasvivant @aral And it seems like they are going to rely on AI for moderation/filtering and will not ban accounts. I guess fascist would be ok.
The clip where the CEO say they won't ban people https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxOqOEys_yr23eTXrV4CiYJf5S4Nmim1Zf?si=KTernWSN8HRmP7Dv
@aslakr @fabio @nicolasvivant Must say, I’m nuttall convinced about all this.
@aral @nicolasvivant Do not use wsocial.
They definitely were talking notes from #Bluesky Jay Graber's disingenuous 'decentralized' charm offensive.
@mastodonmigration @aral @nicolasvivant I checked it and the company is actually registered in Sweden. It’s amazing that they think they can attract regular people with a “top-bottom”-approach by first courting tech companies and LinkedIn peeps . At least bluesky started with the furries and lgbtqia+ people
@mastodonmigration @aral @nicolasvivant The stock is worth €2500 approximately, which is the absolute lowest amount you need to go in with in order to get the approval to start a private company in Sweden lol
@aral @nicolasvivant
they're keen not to mention any fediverse competitor, the only real alternative.
@aral @nicolasvivant "Finally, it's *our* turn to be centralizing oligarchs!"
@aral @nicolasvivant these guys spin the faults of US big tech into some sort of nationalist, "patriotic" tale about how europe is inherently superior. it's annoying because it's never been a matter of that.
@aral @nicolasvivant I love how they don't know how to configure a webserver (i.e. setup www.wsocial.eu to redirect properly)
Agreed, and yet... Better dubya than musk/trump
@GutterPoetry @nicolasvivant Not our only two options (thank fuck).
You need to log in to see that page.
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
@aral @nicolasvivant EU: 'We're switching to Linux and LibreOffice to get rid of Big Tech!
Also EU: 'We're spying on you like Big Tech when viable social media alternatives already exist in the Fediverse!'
Lemme guess, the EU is going to drop Linux and LibreOffice for their own 'Windows' and their own 'Office' that's completely proprietary and incompatible with everything else next?