The European Social Stack: A Manifesto for Digital Sovereignty

"The current trajectory of social media's influence on our citizens and society makes it undeniably clear: the status quo is unsustainable and change is mandatory."

Europe possesses a sophisticated network of social enterprises and a profound depth of knowledge regarding the creation and management of social protocols. By leveraging this expertise, we are transitioning away from ~~monopolistic, authoritarian platforms~~ and their restrictive editorial agendas. Instead, we are uniting to construct a resilient, pluralistic information architecture within Europe.

Our objective is twofold: to shield our institutions and citizens from platform interference and to reclaim the economic value—billions of euros and thousands of jobs—that social media generates, ensuring this wealth circulates within our own domestic business ecosystem.

The Vision for Digital Autonomy

We believe in governing our digital foundations through democratic values, ensuring they remain free from the grip of foreign governments or corporate entities. Social networking is not just about communication; it is a tool of technological hegemony and a vector for foreign political meddling. Consequently, we are treating the Social Web as a vital layer of a truly independent Europe.

The European Model of Decentralization

Europe is defined by its diversity:

27 Sovereign Nations
200+ Languages and Dialects
242 Distinct Regions
100,000+ Cities and Towns
450 Million People

This inherent variety is best mirrored by decentralized networks. We can express this relationship as a formula for resilience:

$\text{Diversity} + \text{Local Autonomy} \times \text{Open Standards} = \text{Robust Infrastructure}$

By moving away from "walled gardens" owned by oligarchs, we embrace a system where local autonomy is connected via transparent protocols.

A Call to Action for Public Institutions

We urge municipalities, governments, civic bodies, and public media to take the following steps:

Prioritize Open Platforms: Publish content primarily on open European social media. ~~Oligarchic infrastructure serves oligarchic interests~~; it does not serve the public.
Invest in Content: Provide funding for the creation of European-centric content and the tools needed to produce it.
Fund Infrastructure: Allocate resources toward the development of decentralized technologies that support these networks.

Economic and Democratic Resilience

Diverse Ownership & Revenue

We reject a one-size-fits-all approach. We advocate for a spectrum of ownership and business models:

Ownership Type	Potential Business Model
Community-led	Crowdfunding / Public Funding
Non-Profit	Grants / Donations
Co-operatives	Member Subscriptions
VC-Backed / Private	SaaS / Privacy-preserving Ads

Shielding Democracy

Europe currently faces a "hybrid conflict." Foreign actors utilize social media to manipulate public sentiment and distort political agendas. To counter this, we are implementing systems with:

Editorial Pluralism
FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference) Monitoring

The Technical Architecture

The "European Social Stack" integrates open-source software into the daily lives of citizens, ensuring transparency and security. By replacing proprietary foreign code with open-source protocols, we create a flexible environment.

{
  "stack_layer": "European Social Web",
  "principles": ["Open Source", "Decentralized", "Democratic"],
  "goal": "Digital Sovereignty"
}

The Three Pillars of the Stack

The architecture is divided into three complementary layers:

Private Messaging: Utilizing open standards like Matrix or XMPP for secure, instant communication. These are already utilized by several EU states for high-security defense applications.
The Fediverse: Based on the ActivityPub protocol, this connects grassroots communities (e.g., Mastodon, PeerTube, Mobilizon) into a unified social deployment.
The Atmosphere: Powered by the AT protocol, this supports large-scale public systems with unbundled governance. Examples include Eurosky, Flashes, Tangled, and Web Tiles.

Roadmap for Joint Development

The signatories of this declaration are committed to collaborating on the following critical initiatives:

Eurobridge: Developing a European-operated bridge (via Bridgy Fed) to link the Fediverse with the Atmosphere and Eurosky.
Distributed Identity: Creating a cross-network identity system for seamless authentication.
Content Moderation: Building infrastructure that complies with the DSA (Digital Services Act) and DMA (Digital Markets Act) to combat illegal content like CSAM.
Multi-protocol Integration: Enhancing the interoperability between different social layers.