Overview
- W Social began a public beta on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, opening registrations after a closed test and promoting the rollout widely including by EU figures.
- New users must verify with a passport or ID and a selfie or short video and the company says it deletes raw documents and keeps only an encrypted token to prevent duplicate accounts.
- The service runs on the open AT Protocol so users can view, follow and interact with Bluesky content rather than starting from an empty network.
- W Social is backed by about 80 private European investors and says it will not take EU state aid, but its monetization timeline is unclear with reports citing 2027 and others saying earliest 2028.
- Key open questions include how many accounts W Social will attract versus projects like Eurosky, which already hosts nearly 20,000 accounts, whether W Social will open its code, and how its verification and moderation choices will affect privacy and vulnerable users.