The European Social Stack — An open declaration
An open declaration
The European<br>Social Stack
Open Social Platforms and Private Messaging
Sign the declaration
Social media’s impact on society and citizens clearly shows the need for change. Europe has a strong ecosystem of social companies and a deep well of expertise in designing and operating social protocols. We are building on this to move away from large monopolistic platforms with their authoritarian governance and editorial positions, and are joining forces to establish a diverse and resilient information infrastructure in Europe. Together, we will protect people and institutions from interference by these platforms. What’s more, we will bring thousands of jobs and billions of euros that social media generates to our continent, to circulate that revenue in our own thriving business ecosystem.
From this perspective, open European platforms and protocols such as the Fediverse (Mastodon, PeerTube, or Mobilizon), the Atmosphere (Eurosky, Flashes, Tangled, or Web Tiles) and Private Messaging systems (like Matrix or XMPP) are complementary solutions for Europe, with shared common goals.
Here is how we are building the European Social Web:
I.<br>Common principles
The eight principles we hold in common.
Digital autonomy
We are governing digital infrastructure in Europe, according to democratic principles, away from the control of foreign companies or governments.
European tech stack
Social media and social networking are an important element of foreign technological dominance and key to foreign political interference in Europe. Therefore, we are building the Social Web as a critical layer of an independent Europe.
Decentralised networks
Europe is a union of 27 sovereign nations, over 200 languages and dialects, 242 regions, 100,000+ towns and cities and 450M people, united by the idea that collaboration and coordination is best for all Europeans. Decentralised social networks match the European model – diversity and local autonomy connected by transparent, open standards into a robust and resilient whole. As Europeans, we are seizing the opportunity to move to resilient, decentralised social networks and protocols, away from oligarch-owned walled gardens.
European content. European social networks. European infrastructure.
We call upon governments, municipalities, public service media, and civic institutions to:
Publish content preferentially on open European social media. Oligarch-owned infrastructure follows oligarch editorial lines, and none of those are in the public’s interest.
Invest in European content and the infrastructure to produce such content needed for European social networks.
Fund the development of resilient, decentralised technology and infrastructure supporting European content and networks.
Wide and diverse ownership
We support a mix of ownership structures for social networks, from community to privately owned, from non-profit to VC-backed, from co-operatives to local companies. We call upon our elected officials to demonstrate political leadership and stop pandering to models that serve no European interest.
Diverse business models
With a diversity of ownership comes a diversity of business models. Our systems empower server operators and entrepreneurs to select the business model that best meets their needs, be it ad-supported (including novel privacy-preserving advertising technology developed in Europe), software-as a-service (SaaS), subscriptions, crowdfunding, public funding, and any other methods which they can imagine.
Strengthening democracy
Europe is in a hybrid conflict on two fronts; our elections and political life are under direct attack from foreign agents who use social media to manipulate public opinion and centre the political agenda to undermine us. We are deploying systems that have editorial pluralism and FIMI monitoring built in to shield our polity from influence and make our democracy resilient under attack.
Open source
The European social stack is a chance to bring Europe’s open source software strategy to everyday Europeans’ lives in a meaningful way. Open Source servers, infrastructure, and apps make social networking for Europeans more transparent, secure, and reliable. We are adopting open source and open protocol solutions to replace proprietary foreign technology.
II.<br>Complementary technologies
Three complementary stacks.
Networked technologies form institutions that lend themselves to addressing different governance needs for different environments. Putting these three stacks together covers extensive ground:
Private messaging
For Private Messaging in groups, open standards (like Matrix or XMPP) are ideal for instantaneous communication, or sharing between family or friends. Multiple EU member states have successfully adopted these protocols, including for security and defence applications.
The Fediverse
The Fediverse, built around ActivityPub,...