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1. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 18-Jun-2026 18:11:57 JST Aral Balkan

   • Elena Rossini 🌈

   Needless to say, do not sign up for W or give them your ID information no matter how simple they eventually manage to make it.

   You simply don’t need to.

   You’re already in a far superior – non-corporate, federated – space.

   Do not sign up for W. And warn your friends.

   The only time you have any power to stop this is now. If they succeed in gaining network effects, you will be as powerless to stop them as you are with X.

   And yes, they’re just another venture capital funded surveillance capitalist, people farmer, and burgeoning Nazi Bar. They just happen to be based in the EU. (As Nazi Bars originally were.)

   #WSocial #NoWNoX #surveillance #capitalism #BigTech #VC @_elena https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116770291207686239

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:25:55 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈
     • John

     @john234 @_elena They’ve already sold the exit to their investors. That’s how they got the investment. Now the game is convincing us that they’d never sell as they – as you said, gain critical mass – and finalise the exit. Unless we deny them the network effects. And that means not giving them the benefit of the doubt. That means not signing up. It means boycotting it.

   • Embed this notice
     John (john234@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:25:56 JST John

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena and like any 'good' VC funded entity, they'll sell out to another (probably US based) social media platform as soon as they've got a critical mass.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:26:34 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈
     • Brad Macpherson

     @brad @_elena Ooh, maybe that’s what we should call it :)

   • Embed this notice
     Brad Macpherson (brad@1040ste.net)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:26:36 JST Brad Macpherson

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena Yet another Dubya that I want nothing to do with...

   • Embed this notice
     Gharbeia, Ⓐ (gharbeia@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:34:33 JST Gharbeia, Ⓐ

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena
     If this achieves network effect, they might even move in the future to outlaw the Fediverse's clients, protecting their interests, while citing protecting children/public interest.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:34:33 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Gharbeia, Ⓐ
     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @gharbeia @_elena Entirely feasible. Anything that doesn’t have identity verification can easily be deemed illegal.

   • Embed this notice
     Elena Rossini 🌈 (_elena@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:40:43 JST Elena Rossini 🌈

     in reply to

     • Chao-c'

     @xChaos @aral the European Commission is openly embracing W Social and von der Leyen took time out of her G7 meetings to promote W!

     This is not a drill.

     I think the EC sees this as a trial run for a possible mandatory social media age verification across the European Union. We must pay attention and resist.

     This is an existential threat to the Fediverse as a whole (which doesn't have systems in place to comply with age verification).

     RESIST & SPEAK UP

   • Embed this notice
     Chao-c' (xchaos@f.cz)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:40:45 JST Chao-c'

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena I am not sure if my trolling :trollface: will be helpful, but:

     I would never even heard about W if not for your statuses here. Just saying...

     Aral Balkan and Rich Felker repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:43:52 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Colin H.
     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @GlasWolf @_elena Apparently he was not arrested. He was escorted out and fined €110. Still ironic but also important to have the facts straight.

     https://yle.fi/a/74-20193800

   • Embed this notice
     Colin H. (glaswolf@mastodon.scot)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:43:53 JST Colin H.

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena My favourite von der Leyen moment.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaSqb1ckLt4

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:51:26 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • cipper 📌
     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @cipper @_elena Why does it have to be a VC-funded startup?

     Signal groups would work perfectly well for that use case. If you want more custom functionality, why not a not-for-profit initiative specially designed for that purpose? There is no scenario where a VC-funded startup is an ethical alternative to other VC-funded startups and their post-exit states (publicly-traded companies).

   • Embed this notice
     cipper 📌 (cipper@mastodon.uno)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:51:27 JST cipper 📌

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena

     I think there would be reasonable use case for this tool, not for social networking but as replacement for schools and institutions that presently rely on GAFAM services.

     Instead of having school communications on Telegram or Whatsapp, having an institutional channel would be much better.

     Beside that, the best part of social networking is to stay anonymous and interact with unknown people, not for misbehaving, but rather to speak freely.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:52:20 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈
     • Edgar de Almeida

     @BerserkEd_PT @_elena Sure but when you see an arsenic beer salesman you don’t have to try it to know that they’re peddling poison.

     (i.e., VC funded startup = arsenic beer salesman)

   • Embed this notice
     Edgar de Almeida (berserked_pt@masto.pt)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 04:52:21 JST Edgar de Almeida

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena
     I took a peak on Wedium (the insta/tiktok euro competitor) because I always like to test stuff instead of just criticizing. I wanted to test a post, first thing I got asked was to identify with webID. Uninstalled it and deleted the email alias I created for it. 😅

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 05:11:18 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Chao-c'
     • Elena Rossini 🌈
     • François @Jura

     @FrancoisPrague @_elena @xChaos They chose W because they have the imagination of a lima bean.

   • Embed this notice
     François @Jura (francoisprague@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 05:11:19 JST François @Jura

     in reply to

     • Chao-c'
     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @_elena @xChaos @aral

     is it just me or they choose W purposefully so it would not seat between X (Twitter) and Z (Russia)? 🤔

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 05:13:49 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Chao-c'
     • Elena Rossini 🌈
     • Captain Jack Sparrow

     @Captain_Jack_Sparrow @_elena @xChaos @aral European "real names" Bluesky.

   • Embed this notice
     Captain Jack Sparrow (captain_jack_sparrow@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 05:13:50 JST Captain Jack Sparrow

     in reply to

     • Chao-c'
     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @_elena @xChaos @aral

     WTF IS 'W social' ?

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 17:00:59 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈
     • Numerfolt

     @Numerfolt @_elena Well colour me surprised :)

   • Embed this notice
     Numerfolt (numerfolt@kirche.social)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 17:01:01 JST Numerfolt

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena Oh, and they have massive security issues:
     https://mu.social/profile/robin.berjon.com/post/3mojbyntys22l

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 17:03:45 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Gauff 🇪🇺
     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @gaufff @_elena Sadly, I reached the same conclusion years ago. You can only get rejected so many times for funding when building exactly what they say they want before you realise that what they say they want and what they actually want are two very different things.

     W is what they want.

     Believe them when they show you who they are.

   • Embed this notice
     Gauff 🇪🇺 (gaufff@piaille.fr)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 17:03:46 JST Gauff 🇪🇺

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena i'm very pessimistic about the future, globally. A small part of me was still putting hope in #Europe . Hoping we would have the chance to do things better, differently.

     Adopt more officially #fediverse , #opensource , #ethics solution. It wouldn't have been hard to leverage on the great strength and potential of #mastodon , #matrix and #element , ...

     This might seem out of proportion, but all my hope is gone 😞 All of it.

     Aral Balkan repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 17:05:33 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Gauff 🇪🇺
     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @gaufff @_elena 🤦♂️

   • Embed this notice
     Gauff 🇪🇺 (gaufff@piaille.fr)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 17:05:34 JST Gauff 🇪🇺

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral @_elena while i write this, the speaker in the (public!) #radio says that we can interact with them via #whatsapp and #instagram 👿

   • Embed this notice
     Frank Heijkamp (alterelefant@mastodontech.de)'s status on Friday, 19-Jun-2026 17:07:46 JST Frank Heijkamp

     in reply to

     • Elena Rossini 🌈

     @aral
     The future of social media is decentralized. No single entity should own an entire platform. We made that mistake before and it is wise to learn from past mistakes. Too much power in one hand will lead to enshittification and abuse of power.

     The definition of insanity is joining centralized social media platforms over and over again and expect the outcome to be different.
     @_elena

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 20-Jun-2026 03:45:41 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Resist AI

     @resistAI 💕

   • Embed this notice
     Resist AI (resistai@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 20-Jun-2026 03:45:42 JST Resist AI

     in reply to

     @aral Well said. Thanks.