EU’s ‘W’ Social Media Platform: Examining Censorship Claims

The European Union is not developing a social media platform called “W,” contrary to viral claims circulating online, according to official statements from both EU authorities and the platform’s creators.

Widespread posts on X (formerly Twitter) have alleged that the EU is investing €500 million of taxpayer money to build a censorship-focused alternative to X. One viral post, viewed more than 60,000 times, claimed this money would fund “a censorship system in which everything is checked, corrected and eliminated,” while another post with over 570,000 views stated the European Union “is releasing W.”

These claims have been refuted by European Commission officials, who confirmed that the EU is not launching or funding any social media platform, including anything called “W.”

Anna Zeiter, CEO of the actual W platform, clarified that her company is a privately owned social media startup incorporated in Sweden. The venture is backed by private investors, primarily from Nordic countries, and was unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

“We are funded exclusively by private investors and operate as an independent company,” Zeiter told fact-checkers at Euronews’ verification unit, The Cube.

Sweden-based climate media company We Don’t Have Time holds a 25% stake in W, making it one of the platform’s largest shareholders. While We Don’t Have Time acknowledged receiving European Commission funding last year, this was for unrelated “communication work” connected to the Global Covenant of Mayors and climate conference activities, not for W’s development.

The startup identifies itself as “European” based on its incorporation location, infrastructure hosting, and investor requirements. W plans to host user data on “European servers owned by European companies” and restricts its investor pool to Europeans. The company intends to partner with Switzerland-based encrypted email provider Proton and FinCloud, a Finnish cloud computing service.

This European-focused approach stands in contrast to global social media giants like X and Meta’s platforms, which operate worldwide with distributed infrastructure across multiple countries and jurisdictions.

Claims that the EU oversees W’s content moderation or directly censors posts are also misleading. While the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) does require large online platforms operating in Europe to mitigate risks and remove illegal content, this legislation applies equally to all major platforms in the region. The DSA does not grant the European Commission authority to directly moderate or control user posts.

According to Zeiter, W aims to foster “more human interaction and fewer bots” to combat disinformation. One of its key features will be identity verification through third-party platforms, though Zeiter emphasized that W itself would not store user data.

While W operates independently from EU institutions, its emergence comes during broader European discussions about “tech sovereignty.” In January, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution calling for stronger European capabilities in cloud computing, semiconductor production, and AI infrastructure.

Additionally, 54 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) sent a letter urging the Commission to consider supporting European alternatives to U.S.-based platforms. However, this letter carried no legal authority and did not call for the EU to develop its own social media platform.

The spread of these false claims highlights ongoing tensions around social media regulation in Europe and the challenges of combating misinformation in an increasingly polarized digital landscape.