@_elena Of course, Jesuit bullspit inbound.

Y'all in Europe need to start repenting of your Catholicism. This is why Europe is getting destroyed. Us Americans are getting destroyed by divine judgment as well.

German #SWR1 will broadcast an interview with Anna Zeiter (CEO #WSocial) tomorrow https://www.swr.de/swr1/leute/index.html

If you're from the south-west of Germany or have questions or feedback you want to share with the editors, here you go: https://www.swr.de/swr1/bw/kontaktformular-swr1-bw-100.html

@_elena

Very well done!

I'm still amazed that so many people think all they have to do is "talk a good game" once they make all the connections, all the while thinking that they're so stealthy and sneaky enough to bypass any suspicions, and then, "just a little bit more, and we'll fool everybody".

I swear they just can't help themselves and still end up with a massive trail of breadcrumbs for someone to find, and in this case, that someone was you.

@_elena Thanks for writing this. It is really important to know where this comes from, who they are, and what it is.

@_elena It is an attempt to catch a momentary sunbeam and do a power-grab.

@_elena I think the motives are easy.

1. They want to make money.
2. Politicians want to appear to be doing something about social media along various axes (age gates, identity, sovereignty)
3. "We have a product ready to go, give us funding / move your social presence to us / write laws that match our behaviour and cause problems for our competitors" is a tried and tested way to get market dominance.

@_elena i spend some time in a videocall with one of their people and you confirm quite a lot of my suspicions. Great research!

@_elena thanks for the depth, and yes:
what a surprising surprise!: as shady today as it was from the beginning..

@_elena i wonder if they will censor palestinian voices

@_elena lol, thank you, being based on atproto is enough information for me to not touch it with a 10ft pole...

@_elena here's another deep dive by @MichaelMrak@mastodon.mrak.at @michaelmrak@privacyofficers.social (dunno which of his many accounts to mention) including Eurosky, not sure if you already knew it: https://www.mrak.at/w-social-bluesky-und-eurosky-wer-betreibt-welche-infrastruktur-im-at-protocol/

@_elena

Elena's new business card :

Elena Rossini
Mastodon
Marketing and investigation

@_elena du beau boulot, bravo !

RE: https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116645486985827346

Thanks @_elena for helping us learn more about #WSocial. The whole business smells like a scam.

Anna Zeiter reminds me too much of Elizabeth Holmes. It’s not tangible evidence, but they have the exact same look in their eyes. I definitely wouldn’t trust her.

@_elena
Wow superbe recherche !
Donc, en somme... C'est de la merde. Ou werde on pourrait dire.

Je n'ai pas fait 1% de ta recherche. Mais en faisant le sign up, ça m'as beaucoup fâché que j'étais invité à utiliser GOOGLE pour la création du compte... Ils se vendent comme un produit / réseau européen indépendant... Et PAF, Google. J'ai fait un post pour me plaindre à ce sujet et je n'y suis plus jamais allé à nouveau.

@_elena Nice work. Absolutely something I would boost across other networks if I still had accounts on them!

(also, BeReal is still around?!)

@_elena
Excellent piece of investigative journalism again Elena!
What's also a red flag in my book is this quote from Zeiter:
"And by this we want to create a platform where things like climate, environment can be discussed in a non-cancel culture."
A non-cancel culture is exactly the argument Elon used. Well, we all know how that turned out. 🙄

My top 3 "favorite" (aka juicy) discoveries about #WSocial, which I discuss on my blog:

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-social-unconventional-beginnings-strategic-pitches-conflicting-signals/

1) The co-founders picked #ATproto but only started using the network WEEKS after their Davos launch

2) The CEO said "we also want to keep European data in Europe to maybe train European AI models with our data because we also have amazing AI companies in Europe" 🤯

3) W Social user "homersimpson"

If you enjoy the article please boost it 🙏

@_elena

My impression is that their pitch is to build an effectively centralized network that can be regulated easily according to EU politicians' wishes (strong ID requirements, age restrictions, etc.). They will probably try to build something like a 21st-century royal court with politicians surrounded by journalists and celebrities, but I'm not sure you can make a tens of billions doing that.

@_elena

> group of C-level executives

Yep, that's how I think of them too. 😀

@_elena BÄÄÄM!

@markus_netzpolitik @gavinkarlmeier @adfichter @PWS_1 @ulrichkelber @netzbegruenung @netzpolitik_feed @kattascha @afelia @AwetTesfaiesus @Katika FYI

#WSocial #AnnaZeiter #ATproto

@_elena BÄÄÄM!

@markus_netzpolitik @gavinkarlmeier @adfichter @PWS_1 @ulrichkelber FYI

#WSocial #AnnaZeiter #ATproto