Fact Check: Reports of EU Launching Social Media Platform ‘W’ Examined

The European Union is not developing a social media platform called “W” to replace X, despite widespread claims circulating online, according to officials and the company’s founders.

Viral posts on X, some viewed more than 570,000 times, have falsely claimed that the EU is launching a social network called “W” using €500 million in taxpayer money to create a “censorship system” where content would be “checked, corrected and eliminated” under Brussels’ oversight.

A European Commission spokesperson has categorically denied these allegations, confirming to Euronews’ fact-checking team, The Cube, that the EU is neither launching nor funding any social media platform, and that no EU-backed project called “W” exists.

W is actually a privately owned social media start-up incorporated in Sweden, according to its CEO Anna Zeiter. The company, which officially unveiled its project at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, is backed by private investors primarily from Nordic countries and operates independently of EU institutions.

One of W’s major shareholders is the Sweden-based climate media company We Don’t Have Time, which holds a 25% stake. While We Don’t Have Time did receive European Commission funding last year for climate-related communication work connected to the Global Covenant of Mayors and the Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, that funding was unrelated to W.

Zeiter emphasized that W identifies as “European” due to its incorporation location, infrastructure hosting, and investment restrictions. The platform plans to host its data on “European servers owned by European companies” and limits its investors to Europeans, using services from Switzerland-based encrypted email provider Proton and Finland-based cloud computing platform UpCloud.

This approach differs from social media giants like X and Meta, which operate globally with infrastructure spread across multiple locations in the United States, Europe, and Asia. X, for instance, maintains operations in the US and Ireland, with user data potentially transferred across various countries where the company operates.

Claims suggesting the EU directly oversees W’s content or censors posts are also misleading. While W, like all major platforms operating in Europe, would be subject to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), this legislation applies universally to social media companies and doesn’t grant the European Commission authority to directly control or moderate content.

The DSA requires large platforms to address systemic risks and remove illegal content while being transparent about their moderation practices, but these rules apply equally to established platforms like X and Meta.

According to Zeiter, W aims to foster “more human interaction and fewer bots” to combat disinformation and manipulation campaigns that have proliferated on other platforms. A key feature will be identity verification through third-party platforms, designed to counter anonymous bot profiles without storing user data on W’s servers. Zeiter previously oversaw data protection and artificial intelligence policy at eBay.

Although W has no official EU backing, the controversy emerges against a backdrop of increasing European efforts to achieve “tech sovereignty.” In January, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution advocating for stronger European cloud computing, semiconductor production, and AI infrastructure to reduce dependence on foreign technology suppliers.

Separately, 54 Members of the European Parliament urged the Commission in a letter to consider supporting European alternatives to US platforms, calling for increased backing of European innovation in social media. However, this letter carried no legal authority and did not call for the EU to create its own social media platform.