Has W Social switched to closed source?
Has W Social Abandoned Open Source?
W Social, Public Institutions, and the Performance of European Digital Sovereignty
By Elena Rossini | June 17, 2026 | 8 min read
Recently, I have found myself diving deep into the ecosystem of W Social. For the uninitiated, this is a microblogging platform—a fork of Bluesky—that markets itself as the European answer to X. Its primary selling points are identity verification (designed to curb misinformation and bots) and the promise of hosting data within Europe to bolster "European digital sovereignty."
However, there is a jarring gap between the image they project and the actual operational reality.
I have uncovered some startling information that has yet to be picked up by mainstream media. With W Social preparing to open its public beta to the waiting list today, it is the perfect time to revisit this topic.
Contextual Note: If you are new to this saga, I have previously written about W Social—a for-profit venture led by Swedish entrepreneurs who have openly stated their intention to use user data to train European AI models.
⚠️ Disclaimer: This piece reflects my personal opinions and conclusions derived from independent research of public data. My interpretations are presented as commentary, not objective facts. I encourage readers to examine the sources and decide for themselves.
The Migration of Power: Government Accounts Move to W Social
On Friday, June 12th, I received a tip regarding a significant shift in digital presence. It appeared that several high-profile ATproto accounts had migrated their hosting from Bluesky PBC to W Social’s own servers. These included:
- The European Commission
- Ursula von der Leyen (President of the European Commission)
- The European Central Bank (ECB)
- Christine Lagarde (President of the ECB)
I verified this via clearsky.app (an ATproto indexer), and the data confirmed the move.
This move is baffling. W Social is a private, profit-driven company run by Swedish businessmen with a shaky launch history and a lack of transparency regarding their technical infrastructure.
A Better Alternative: Eurosky
Interestingly, Europe already possesses an ATproto-based network: Eurosky. Managed by the non-profit Modal foundation, Eurosky operates with total transparency and an open development roadmap.
Recently, Eurosky has made significant leaps toward true independence from Bluesky PBC:
- They are mirroring the
did:plcdirectory. - They have implemented their own "firehose" on European soil.
- They launched
mu.social, a comprehensive replacement for the standard Bluesky app.
Comparing the Two Approaches
| Feature | W Social | Eurosky |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | For-profit (Swedish Entrepreneurs) | Non-profit (Modal Foundation) |
| Transparency | Low / Opaque | High / Open Roadmap |
| Goal | Commercial / AI Training | Sovereign Infrastructure |
| Source Code | Open Source |
Understanding Digital Sovereignty in ATproto
To understand why this migration is problematic, one must understand how ATproto works. It is a modular system. To achieve actual sovereignty, a provider needs more than just a server; they need a full stack.
To be truly sovereign, the following components must be independently managed:
- PDS (Personal Data Server): Stores posts, likes, follows, and handles signing keys.
- Relay: Streams data from PDS instances to AppViews.
- AppView: The "engine" that allows for searching and indexing.
- Moderation Service: Manages mutes, blocks, and labels.
- PLC: Maps usernames to public identities.
While hosting a PDS is simple, the other components require massive technical and financial resources. W Social claims to host data in Europe, but they have been silent about whether they are still relying on Bluesky PBC for the more complex infrastructure.
Exclusive: The Shift to Closed Source
On Saturday, I received a second, more alarming tip: W Social has deleted its public code repository.
The repository at https://github.com/w-social-eu is gone. While the state of the code from early March is still available via the Wayback Machine, the live repo is no longer public.
This means the European Commission has effectively moved its data from an open-source environment (Bluesky) to a closed-source, proprietary platform.
The Great Irony: The Tech Sovereignty Package
This move is particularly surreal given the timing. On June 3rd—just a week before the account migration—the European Commission announced its Tech Sovereignty Package.
The package outlines four core pillars to make Europe more digitally self-reliant. The third pillar specifically focuses on:
Strengthening digital autonomy through open source – the open source strategy will scale up open source alternatives in priority areas... and support greater use of open source in public administrations.
We can express the Commission's stated logic as:
Yet, in practice, the Commission did the opposite: they moved to a closed-source, for-profit entity.
Related Imagery:
