We already had Mastodon and Bluesky, but they were bottom-up alternatives. Now the “W” – a community platform with the blessing of European elites, presented in Davos.
Aim? make a safe haven distant from Elon Musk and American influence. Price? No more anonymity.
In like ‘Verified’
The announcement of the launch of the fresh platform took place on 20 January during the planet economical Forum in Davos. Anna Zeiter, a privacy expert (previously in eBay) stands behind the “W” and the task is supported by a group of erstwhile ministers and businessmen, mainly from Sweden.
The main discrimination ‘W’ is to be the absolute verification of identity. To make an account, the user will gotta pass the photo-validation process. The presumption is simple: we verify whether you are human and whether you are who you say you are. This is to completely destruct the armies of bots and trolls that digest the X platform.
Anna Zeiter translates the name “W” as abbreviation for “We” (We), but besides as a combination of 2 V: Values (Values) and Verified (Verified). As she says with a snack, “The fact that W is in the alphabet before X is simply a good coincidence.”
X is simply a “deepfake pornographic website”
Start “W” is simply a direct consequence to the war that the European Union is fighting with Elon Musk. A group of 54 MEPs late issued an open letter stating that X had ceased to be a "public place" and became a "one-way broadcasting strategy for Musk" and a place flooded by AI-generated pornography.
Europe wants to have its place for a debate under the GDPR (data to be hosted in the EU) and is free from the whims of American billionaires.
Elon Musk promises full transparency. fresh X algorithm to be open source
Background: Trump, Greenland and customs
However, the context of this start is much broader than just fighting hate. The year 2026 brought a fast cooling of relations on the Washington-Brussels line. Donald Trump, in carrying out his threats, imposed (and subsequently withdrew) duties on European countries opposing his plans... to acquisition (or annexation) Greenland.
In this atmosphere, “W” is to be a digital bastion of European sovereignty. The question is, will users want to decision to a website that looks more like a digital office than a loose social network? past shows that "government" social media seldom happens to be "cool".
Availability
The platform is presently in early access phase and its operator is the daughter company of the climate platform "We Don’t Have Time". The offices are planned in Berlin and Paris.
If article Europe is building anti-X. It's called "W" and will only let you in with ID does not look right in your RSS reader, then see it on iMagazine.
