Europe announces its alternatives to Twitter and YouTube

Not everyone knows that there is an open-source alternative to Twitter: it’s called Mastodon and it doesn’t involve advertising, algorithms and the like. The European Union has announced through its European Data Protection Supervisor that will independently manage its own server on Mastodon, appointed EU Voice, to allow the citizens of the continent to dialogue directly with the institutions. Not only that: the EU is also preparing an alternative to YouTube on EU Video, a new social network based on the PeerTube platform. The two platforms are part of a long list of “free” alternatives to corporate-run social media, and include Pixelfed (similar to Instagram) and Funkwhale (streaming music). It is not surprising that Europe has decided to actively explore alternatives to American platforms, with which there has been friction for more than ten years on various issues, first and foremost managing the privacy of its users. “With the launch of EU Voice and EU Video, we aim to offer a viable alternative to standard social media that values ​​individuals and their right to privacy and data protection,” EDPS said. “There are no advertisements on these social networks, and users are not profiled. These measures, along with others, relieve users of concern about how their data is being used.”