About

The story so far

European.Social began in a breakout group. At the end of January 2026, ahead of FOSDEM in Brussels, the Social Web Foundation convened a workshop on the open social web in Europe. One group concluded: we need to start working together, and speak with one voice in Europe.

Over the following months the co-convenors of European.Social brought people together, and began drafting and redrafting a declaration that could hold the Fediverse, the Atmosphere and private messaging in one frame: eight principles, three complementary technologies, and some early concrete actions.

Twelve organisations came on board as founding signatories, and on 5 June 2026 the declaration was launched at PublicSpaces in Amsterdam. It has now been signed by more than a hundred organisations and more than six hundred individuals: platform builders, protocol maintainers, public institutions, public figures and civil-society groups from across Europe.

In late summer 2026 a steering group began meeting at Waag Futurelab in Amsterdam to work out how a movement becomes a working organisation. We are forming a civil-society-led association, with the builders, the communities and the supporters each organised in their own circle. In parallel, the first workstreams are moving forward: a European-operated bridge between protocols, content moderation run as a commons, and a joint bid with Waag Futurelab to build youth social spaces on both the Fediverse and the Atmosphere under an EU call.

The organisation we are forming

On 4 November 2026 the movement becomes an organisation.

The coalition is incorporating as the European Social Association, a charitable association based in Germany, led by civil society. Its Board and leadership are drawn from civil-society institutions across Europe, backed by a Builders’ Circle made up of those building the technologies, a Community Circle of the communities using the stack, and a Trust & Safety Council governing moderation.

The founding Board will be appointed from civil-society institutions in the countries leading the Digital Commons EDIC, and announced ahead of the first European.Social gathering at PublicSpaces in June 2027. Until then the steering group formed at Waag and the founding members act for the Association.

Around the Board sit the people working on European open socials:

• The Builders’ Circle brings together those building open social technologies and applications: platforms, apps, protocol implementations and the infrastructure beneath them.
• The Community Circle brings together the communities, institutions and publishers using open socials.
• The Trust & Safety Council governs how content moderation is run across the coalition.
• The Organisational Supporters Circle and the Individual Supporter Chapters welcome everyone else who backs the mission, across Europe and beyond.

The Association is seeking funding for a small executive team to support the Board and the circles.

For the founding period there is no formal membership. Everyone who signs the declaration is a supporter and is placed in the circle that fits them. The circles are convened and consulted; decisions rest with the Board. Formal membership, with voting rights and country chapters, will follow once the Association is established.

What we do

Eurobridge is a European-operated bridge between the Fediverse and the Atmosphere, so that people on each network can seamlessly interact. Engineers from both protocol communities meet for the first technical workshop on 17–18 November 2026 to agree the architecture and the operating model.

Euromoderation will govern content moderation as a commons: shared tooling, shared threat intelligence and shared policy, aligned with the Digital Services Act and governed in Europe through the Trust & Safety Council.

Deployment brings newsrooms, broadcasters, universities, libraries, municipalities and young people onto infrastructure Europe owns. Coalition members are already doing this in France, Germany and the Netherlands. Our goal is to share learning and infrastructure, making deployments simpler and more scalable.

Representation gives the builders, the communities and civil society one voice to the European Commission, the Digital Commons EDIC and member-state governments, and supports joint bids for EU funding. Starting with a bid by Waag Futurelab for youth social spaces on both the Fediverse and the Atmosphere, reflecting the principles of European.Social.

News on each will appear here as it happens.