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Europeans set to launch an alternative to X. It’s called W (cybernews.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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European organizations are about to launch their own social media platform, W, amid rising tensions with the United States.

The new platform, W, will require identification and photo validation to ensure that its users are both humans and who they claim to be, Danish news media outlet Politiken.dk reports.

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[–] 67 points 6 months ago (4 children)

The new platform, W, will require identification and photo validation to ensure that its users are both humans and who they claim to be

apparently we are now supposed to think that that is a good thing, huh

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  • [–] 15 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Not something for general users but, for organisations and public figures, having a platform with only verified entities is valuable.

    For general users: Mastodon and the Fediverse.

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  • [–] 12 points 6 months ago

    I am a huge proponent of privacy, anonymity and freedom of information and I also totally support this idea.

    A public place where people have to speak as their public selves is useful to have and doesn't mean other spaces have to be removed. Especially for official communication from public entities, I prefer them to use this than some other sites that are rampant with bots, imposters and the like.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    This depends on how the verification is done, in my opinion, as well as whether there is a presence of more anonymous alternatives.

    If the EU has a system which does not rely on third parties for verification and allows the platform to verify directly with a government-run service, then the only real issue there is lack of anonymity, which isn't necessarily a bad thing on a platform if there are also popular anonymous alternatives people can use when they want to.

    The article doesn't go into how ID verification will work though. If it's through third parties like how the US does it, then that's disgusting and waiting to be breached.

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  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    If the EU has a system which does not rely on third parties for verification and allows the platform to verify directly with a government-run service

    The EU has been driving union wide "Digital Identity Wallet" It's documented here: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/spaces/EUDIGITALIDENTITYWALLET/pages/694487738/EU+Digital+Identity+Wallet+Home

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago*

    A government endpoint would also be a very spicy target, even if (and that's a big IF) they programmed it correctly and didn't store any verification info outside of RAM and had the internal data references locked down tight.

    It might take getting people actual digital keys that are theirs and using those with proper cryptographic processes instead of PII before such a target might end up hardened enough to not be a time bomb waiting to happen.

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