European Politicians Unveil "W", an Upcoming Twitter/X Alternative

Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads – the internet has seen no shortage of so-called "Twitter/X killers" rolled out over the past few years. That list is about to grow again: a group of European politicians and entrepreneurs has unveiled "W," a new alternative to X explicitly marketed to users looking to leave Twitter for political reasons.

Presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos to the tune of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall, Pt.1 – The Wall played at WEF, talk about something that wasn't on anyone's bingo card – W is described by its CEO Anna Zeiter, an ex-lawyer and eBay's former Vice President of AI & Privacy, as a "better version of Twitter" that would be "governed and hosted in Europe."

"Across Europe and beyond, systemic disinformation is eroding public trust and weakening democratic decision-making. Many see the problem. Far fewer are helping shape what comes next," she comments. "We believe there is an urgent need for a new social media platform built, governed, and hosted in Europe. With human verification, free speech, and data privacy at its core."

One of the most notable differences between W and X, and one that is undoubtedly going to push away a great deal of people, is the former's total de-anonymization.

As reported by Politiken, every user registering on the platform will be required to undergo identification and photo validation to both prove they are who they claim they are and confirm that they are not a bot if they want to create an account, leading, in theory, to fewer bots at the cost of the platform's owners having private information on each of its users.

Speaking of the owners, and further underscoring that W is a political initiative first and foremost, the platform's advisory board includes former German Vice Chancellor Philipp Rösler, two former Swedish ministers, Club of Rome President Sandrine Dixson-Declève, and EuroStack co-founder Cristina Caffara.

In legal terms, W will operate as a subsidiary of We Don't Have Time, a climate activist organization led by Ingmar Rentzhog, who is also one of the new platform's donors. We Don't Have Time itself is backed by sponsors such as IKEA, Volvo, Unilever, WWF, Salesforce, the United Nations Development Programme, and more than 450 other organizations and companies. While the majority of investors are based in Sweden, Bilanz reports that the W team is distributed across Europe, with Chief Commercial Officer Johan Sundstrand based in London and the tech team located in Ukraine.

So what are your thoughts on W? Does the world really need yet another "Twitter killer"? Would you be willing to share your identity to access a social media platform? Leave your thoughts down in the comments.

Don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter and join our 80 Level Talent platform, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.