European Union pilots open source alternative to Twitter in wake of Musk buyout

If you’re a Twitter user who’s not too thrilled about a certain multi-billionaire buying out the social media network, you might be interested in checking out its open source alternative, Mastodon. 

The European Union’s Data Protection Supervisor (or EDPS) announced this week that it would publicly pilot its own Mastodon server, dubbed EU Voice, as a way for European institutions and agencies to talk to regular people. The EDPS said it’s also testing a YouTube alternative, EU Video, which is based on the open-source platform, PeerTube.

Together, these platforms are part of what’s colloquially known as the “fediverse”; a collection of free-to-use, open source alternatives to more commonly known and commercialised social platforms. These include services like Pixelfed (the fediverse equivalent of Instagram), and Funkwhale (the fediverse Spotify).

European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski said in a statement that with the pilot launch of EU Voice and EU Video, the EDPS aims to offer alternative social media platforms that prioritize individuals and their rights to privacy and data protection. However they will need to lure a significant number of followers away from Twitter and YouTube in order to get off the ground.

Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko reported an influx of tens of thousands of new users in wake of the Elon Musk news.

- CyberBeat