@stefan
I think that's PR.
Looks like a private company with Swedish connections and run by a Swiss person who worked in eBay.

At least she's not efrom Amazon, Meta, Alphabet or MS.

@samueljohnson @stefan I *am* in the EU and have experienced it first-hand. The EU is a clueless, authoritarian bureaucracy, masquerading as a democracy. They try to legislate, regulate, and control every aspect of our lives, from how curved the bananas can be, to whether bottle caps should be attached to the bottles, want to scan our encrypted messages, and so on.

(I'm not saying that the USA is any better; just different.)

@jwildeboer @stefan

Yup, this seems to just be some random startup's PR release without any official status.

@bontchev @stefan > every aspect of our lives

Arrant nonsense. And for this tripe you are muted. Bye.

@samueljohnson @stefan As I said, I've experience it first-hand. Feel free to close your mind and not read what I write - it's your right to do so - but it won't change what I've experienced and it won't stop me from voicing my opinion.

@stefan ah this is what W is https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/115932181066382822

@slowe @stefan @Lockpro An excellent AFK example. Class- or workmates know, teachers or bosses know, and as long as none of 'em do anything it'll continue.

Related: https://social.data.coop/@benjaoming/115933023306020430

RE: https://mastodon.social/@aslakr/115933140926774633

@Mabande @stefan @Lockpro And W Social seem to think that the only way to have accountability is to use «real names»

@stefan it's not "European organizations", it's one rich Swiss techbro trying to capitalize on the situation and get rich off of harvesting people's data herself instead of having American companies do it

@hazelnot Yes, the article really isn't doing a great job of explaining this initiative, appreciate everyone adding context in the replies!

Hm, so it might actually be powered by ATproto?

W for ATProto

W is a new platform recently announced, aspiring to be a European alternative to X. It may actually be powered by ATProto, based on leaked screenshots. This is a win for ATProto

ATProtocol Dev (atprotocol.dev)

Interesting.

#W #SocialMedia #ATproto #atmosphere #bluesky

@stefan I hope it will at least be an independent deployment! What a bullshit… They could use real standards…

@stefan

well, it is a puzzling move but only for a very short time
If it would be ATProto it would not be an "European Alternative" it would just be an app built in Europe.
Crazy enough but maybe better to build diverse hosted European fedi instances

@stefan

Wondered what protocol/software stack might be underneath 'W'

So, #ATProto eh?

This is all I have collected of any interest. The Issue is still open on Github, and dates to "opened on Aug 12, 2023"

qazmlp on Jun 12, 2024 · edited by qazmlp

"Please excuse the harsh wording, but ATProto is genuinely a "privacy-last" specification where the concept of follower-approval and post privacy aren't meaningful, aside from temporarily deactivating an account entirely.

(Adding a locked account feature to apps isn't entirely impossible of course, but doing so with privacy would require at the least a parallel network with distinct architecture and protocol.)

That's not to say there wouldn't be any value in an appview- and app-side mechanism to limit exposure though, as long as it's made clear that it's trivial to circumvent with an alternative client. That may at least turn away the brunt of the harassment in such situations."

Here: https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/1155#issuecomment-2163556647

#W

@stefan

Also:

Nekkowe on Oct 21, 2024

"Thanks a lot for the answer, I was thinking about it and that maybe at-proto would be the 'guilty' for not getting this feature. What you said gave a new perspective of the issue.

Mind you, the AT Protocol is also developed by Bluesky PBC https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#about-at-protocol "

@stefan @briankrebs maybe it‘s a mastodon instance?

@jmovs Funny that you mention that, I just posted this:

Stefan Bohacek (@stefan@stefanbohacek.online)

Hm, so it might actually be powered by ATproto? https://atprotocol.dev/w-for-atproto/ Interesting. #W #SocialMedia #ATproto #atmosphere #bluesky

Stefan's Personal Mastodon Server (stefanbohacek.online)

@briankrebs

@FinchHaven Well this still seems to be just a guess, so we'll see. But regardless, I don't find this W project all that interesting, regardless of the protocol they use.

@sl007 Well they would presumably build the full infrastructure, the PDS, the appview, etc.

Much like Blacksky has managed to do so recently, if you've been following the project:

Blacksky - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)