Uh, Mastodon exists?
Bye, X: Europeans are launching their own social media platform, W
Submitted 2 weeks ago by bossito@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://cybernews.com/tech/europe-social-media-w/
Comments
gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m assuming they want to compete with X/Twitter.
palordrolap@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
... so you don't think Mastodon is a worthy competitor?
How about Bluesky?
gedaliyah@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If they built out a Mastodon network with government support, then it would.
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
will require identification and photo validation
Straight from the book “How to kill your app before launch”, page 1.
data privacy at its core
Looks like they haven’t seen the obvious conflict with requiring id + photo, unless they plan on manually review every application.
After reading the article, it sounds like they’re just making yet another xitter clone with the hopes that govt figures will use it. Govts could just spin their own mastodon or similars for a similar effect.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yup. Nothing and I say nothing makes a service less secure for privacy than requiring your ID and photo. That data will get leaked. It always does.
gian@lemmy.grys.it 2 weeks ago
Most of EU countries has some sort of electronic identification system (in Italy SPID and CIE). You can simply ask to validate against it when creating an account and then you are good. You are verified and there is no dato to be leaked aside the data you decide to put into the system.
bossito@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Considering the amount of bots and trolls everywhere I can see a certain appeal on an app that requires an id verification to be honest.
mbirth@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
But if they’re doing it half-assed as most services, it won’t be a challenge for AI to generate random IDs and a matching avatar for photo/video verification. The only way this could work is if they’d verify your ID by reading the NFC chip inside the passport or ID card.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
There needs to be high-quality discussion about how to make sure that users of social media platforms are humans instead of bots, but it needs to be a discussion happening in the open and not behind closed doors.
Right now, the approach is to not talk about it and assume that verification can only happen via photo. It could also be done in different ways, such as using a QR code that you get at a supermarket; or by only allowing 1 user account per physical device (which would make bot accounts expensive). There’s lots of possible ways and none of them are discussed.
architect@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
They figured it out. They damn well know they are going to spy on everyone with this.
Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it 2 weeks ago
to ensure that its users are […] who they claim to be
I dont’t want that either. Maybe for verified accounts this makes sense, but not for the average shitposter.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
After reading the article, it sounds like they’re just making yet another xitter clone with the hopes that govt figures will use it.
Nothing puts me off more than advocating for a new product or set of technology without reasonably comparing it to already-existing technology. They should dedicate a section of their homepage to an explanation what’s the difference between their system and Mastodon.
friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I hate X, but good luck with this:
The new platform, W, will require identification and photo validation to ensure that its users are both humans and who they claim to be,
dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Europeans will absolutely not fight back on it and will comply willingly with zero hesitation, unfortunately
tehsillz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Lol, what? Nobody will use this.
Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 2 weeks ago
Spyware disguised as a “social media platform”, hard pass.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
cough cough Mastodon.
@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
[deleted]ns1@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission
It has over 3k posts and 145k followers. Mastodon posts don’t federate to lemmy unless they tag a lemmy community
deathbird@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
The shit some people will go to to avoid an open platform.
yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Isn’t this just some random company trying to cash in a little from controversy surrounding Xitter?
brooke592@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yes, and stupid people are going to lap it up.
Meron35@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They named themselves W but those draconian ID requirements are an L
RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
There is no future in social media unless it’s decentralized. Gonna assume this is dead on arrival.
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
You didn’t read the text? It says decentralized.
RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I have little faith that means what you think it means.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I know Europe might seem like a country of you’re illiterate, but um it isn’t. W is a Swedish company with a dumb idea at the core of its app
bossito@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh sorry, I forgot Sweden is in Africa. Or that referring a an as European implies that Europe is a country. Luckily there are still people like you to educate us all /s
Melusine@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 2 weeks ago
I am staying on mastodon for the micro blogging, not interested in centralized shit. Also, recommander systems are a plague.
architect@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
Governments making this stuff instead of the people? Really bad idea.
EightBitBlood@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh because people did such a good job the first time?
Anything people make, no mater how good, can and has been purchased to be turned to shit and controlled by those that purchase it. In that world, which is the one we live in now, a government made and publicly used social media service is just about the only way to create a resilient and uncorruptable form of social media. Especially compared to current alternatives that are already getting corrupted.
I’m not saying what they’ll make is perfect. But it’s far better than any other option we currently have. thKnee jerk reacting to assuming it’s bad is very much the same crux billionaires used in the US to weaken the government that would otherwise regulate them.
A government is literally the best suited to creating this tech due to its public utility. Same with electricity, water, Emergency services, roads and more. Everyone uses them, so our taxes should go to making those things better.
This is a step in the right direction.
SnoringEarthworm@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
it’s far better than any other option we currently have.
We have the Fediverse. Brother, you’re literally on it right now.
73ms@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
This isn’t actually a government doing it. It’s just some VC backed company that went to Davos to announce it.
brooke592@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Anything people make, no mater how good, can and has been purchased to be turned to shit and controlled by those that purchase it.
GPL would like to have a word with you.
General_Effort@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Looks like W is being built on ATProto.
Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
For non-believers in that format of social media, is ATProto good or bad?
General_Effort@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The basic building block of the Fediverse is the instance, right? Every instance is its own self-contained, centralized social media service that optionally interacts with other instances. EG Trump’s Truth Social is a Mastodon instance that does not federate.
ATProto takes a more radical approach. Everything is modular. There is no instance or anything that is complete in itself. It’s more like the WWW. You can make websites in different ways. These are made findable through search engines like Google or Bing, which are not affiliated with companies offering web hosting.
ATProto takes everything apart. It tries to avoid choke points or lock-in as far as possible to thwart monopolies. You have a server that stores your data (posts, etc …), called a PDS. You can move your data to a different server. An identity provider tells others where your account is at any moment. A relay collects all the posts that people make and makes them available for further processing. This can be used to create algorithmic feeds, or moderation (aka labelling). These things are independent of each other and can be independently offered by different parties. You can pick and chose which to use, though there isn’t a whole lot of choice yet.
webkitten@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Doing a pure EU PDS is great; hopefully they do a Webview too, so that moderation and trust and safety aren’t at the behest of US Bsky.
General_Effort@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s something that may cause some grief in Europe. Moderation in ATproto is opt-in. You don’t have to subscribe to a US moderation service or any moderation service. One will probably want someone to filter spam, harassment, or content that one finds objectionable. But moderation according to EU regulations is about removing content that other people don’t want you to see. I’m not sure if that’s going to be super popular.
General_Effort@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Y’all will enjoy this: w-social.eu
veeesix@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Anna Zeiter, CEO of W, has told Bilanz.ch that W stands for “We.” Meanwhile, the first of the Vs that make up W stands for “Values,” and the second for “Verified.”
“The fact that W comes before X in the alphabet is certainly also a welcome coincidence,” Zeiter said.
Was curious if the”W” had a deeper meaning to it. Turns out it’s actually two V’s that form a “W”
aeiou@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
you mean it doesn’t stand for Wumbo?
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Stupid name, vv, or vave would’ve been better. Besides, it’s not like they’ll register v.v as a domain, or even www.w.vv
veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Digital Voyeurist Values Verified
PierceTheBubble@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
So a Mastodon ripoff, but its instances hosted by a single entity (effectively centralized): ensuring all instances residing within the European jurisdiction (allowing for full control over it). I don’t see how they genuinely believe, to have humans do the photo validation, when competing at the scale of X; especially when you run all the instances. Perhaps they could recruit volunteers to socialize the losses, as the platform privatizes the profits. Nothing but a privacy-centric approach however: said the privacy expert…
Zeiter emphasized that systemic disinformation is eroding public trust and weakening democratic decision-making … W will be legally the subsidiary of “We Don’t Have Time,” a media platform for climate action … A group of 54 members of the European Parliament [primarily Greens/EFA, Renew, The Left] called for European alternatives
It that doesn’t sound like a recipe, for swinging the pendulum to the other extreme (once more), I don’t know what does… Because can you imagine, a modern social media platform, not being a political echo chamber: not promoting extremism by use of filter bubbles, and instead allowing for deescalation through counter argumentation. One would almost start to think, for it all to be intentional: as a deeply divided population will never stand united, against their common oppressor.
73ms@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I think they’re automating the photo validation. The CEO mentioned something about giving back by releasing their facial recognition solution or something in the interview at Davos.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I genuinely thought this was an Onion post.
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Should’ve named it Y or Z. You know, like +1…
brooke592@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
If it’s not federated then it’s not a good thing.
Kissaki@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
The initiative to create the social media platform W is supported by an advisory board and former ministers and business representatives, primarily from Sweden.
That links to an article about ADHD medication. lol
Well, at least their second source reference makes sense.
atropa@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Nah , pub is better ,talking to real persons
FirmDistribution@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
only Ws in the chat, guys 😎
Checkmate, Elon Musk.
themurphy@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Should just have said it stands for Wordfeud, which would be commical.
edgemaster72@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Should’ve called it Z. Is just as good as X. In fact, is two better.
RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Y tho
veeesix@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
*Comrade has entered the chat*
Etterra@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
But why “W”?
Kissaki@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Win
I don’t know.
dust_accelerator@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
W comes before X
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
You didn’t read the text?
Deestan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We are?
bossito@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Hold my hand and let’s say yes together.
SavageCoconut@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This just looks like a Simpsons episode… but I don’t remember which one.
somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Wafrn
6nk06@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
With all the privacy issues in the past few years, it’s “dead on arrival” as they say.
Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yup. It will fail spectacularly.
artyom@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
If distributing child pornography can’t get people off Xitter, nothing will.
RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
It will probably fail silently, if it doesn’t pick up enough momentum. * Sad failed platform noises *
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
W also known as useless garbage.
artyom@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Any for-profit company will have to comply with this, unfortunately.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But none of them ever asked me for a photo or ID.