W

microblogging · beta · since Jun 2026

People post short public messages, photos, videos and livestreams, follow and reply to each other, and read feeds that also carry posts from the wider Bluesky network. Posting needs passport-and-selfie verification in the separate W Identity app.

how dependent?

  1. 07OperatorSEW Social AB
  2. OwnerSEPrivate investors, the largest known being We Don't Have Time AB (25%)
  3. ProtocolUSBluesky Social PBC
  4. Shared servicesUSBluesky Social PBC
  5. CodeSEW Social ABUSBluesky Social PBC
  6. VerificationSEW Identity ABSETrust Anchor Group AB
  7. 06ModelsEUEuropean Commission (eTranslation)
  8. 05DataFIW Social ABUSBluesky Social PBC
  9. 04ServersFIUpCloud
  10. EdgeSIBunny.net
  11. 03–01Belowcompute, networks and resources are not recorded per app

Every layer above links to what it rests on. The figure counts the EU, the EEA, Switzerland and the UK as European, as the landscape does.

How it is run

nine questions
ArchitectureWho holds your account and posts?

Open protocol, through Bluesky Social PBC

open protocol: yes

move your account and keep your followers: yes

hub: Bluesky Social PBC

W runs its own account server (PDS) and a partial AppView, but by default reads timelines through Bluesky's AppView; it switched to its own during a Bluesky outage on 16 August 2026 and back the next day. W states that accounts, handles, followers and posts can move to and from any AT Protocol provider, with a migration tool live since 21 September 2026 (moving in needs an invite code, moving out does not).

Business modelWho pays, and for what?

No revenue yet; plans untargeted ads · a cut of sales

W is free and carries no advertising; it is funded by private investors. W says advertising will come later with "no undesired profiling based on your personal data", which does not settle whether it will be contextual only; its CEO has put the start at the end of 2027 at the earliest (press). She has also described micropayments for single news articles, with revenue shared with publishers (press).

OrganisationWhat kind of organisation runs it?

Investor-backed company

control: Privately held with no known majority owner; We Don't Have Time AB holds about 25%, and co-founder Ingmar Rentzhog chairs the board

W describes itself as privately held and funded by private investors, whom it limits to Europeans; a summary of a CEO interview counts over 80 investors, mostly Nordic (press). The register gives W's postal address as c/o We Don't Have Time AB. The 25% stake is from press; no shareholder register was read.

FeedWho decides what you see?

Feeds you choose

W offers several feeds: its own (W Users, W Media, W Organisations) and Bluesky's What's hot and Discover (press, July 2026), and users can pin lists as feeds. W's terms list the ranking signals and say users can adjust recommendations in settings. The web client keeps Bluesky's code for finding and saving third-party feeds, which W does not describe (inference from the code).

ModerationWho moderates?

The operator, plus services you add

W moderates under its own DSA notice-and-action rules, labelling through its own moderation service. Its web client keeps Bluesky's code for subscribing to other AT Protocol labellers, which W does not describe (inference from the code). Content read through Bluesky's AppView is also subject to Bluesky's takedowns (inference).

AI trainingDoes your content train AI?

Not disclosed

Neither the terms (29 Jul 2026) nor the privacy notice (12 Jun 2026) mention AI training; the content licence covers operating, promoting and improving the platform. There is no dedicated setting or form; only the general GDPR right to object, by request, is available. Posts are public across the AT Protocol, and the terms say others may copy and index them outside W's control. W's CEO, Anna Zeiter, told the Artificial Intelligence Monaco conference on 2 May 2026 that W wants 'to keep European data in Europe to maybe train European AI models with our data'; the recording has since been taken down, and the remark survives in Elena Rossini's account.

IdentityMust you prove who you are?

ID needed to post

verification: W Identity AB

Read off the verification layer, where its sources are.

Open sourceIs the code open?

Partly open

licence: proprietary client; public forks of Bluesky's server code keep their upstream licences

Read off the code layer, where its sources are.

SizeHow big is it?

Not disclosed

W publishes no user count; its waitlist was reported at 120,000 in August 2026 (press), and Google Play shows 10K+ installs. A read of W's account server on 28 Sep 2026 listed 41,133 accounts, 40,925 of them active; that is a measurement, not a figure W states, and it includes institutional accounts.

What each layer rests on

checked 24 Sep 2026
07OperatorWho serves the app?

W Social AB · Sweden

Stockholm, org. nr 559544-6690, with Anna Zeiter as CEO. Presented at Davos in January 2026; public beta by invitation since 17 June 2026.

07OwnerWho owns the operator, where someone else does?

Private investors, the largest known being We Don't Have Time AB (25%) · Sweden

For-profit and privately funded, mainly by Nordic investors. W is not a subsidiary of We Don't Have Time, as some launch coverage said. The European Commission denies launching or funding it.

  • W FAQW is a privately held, for-profit company incorporated in Stockholm.read 24 Sep 2026
  • Euronews, The Cube fact-check (29 Jan 2026)One of W's largest shareholders is Sweden-based climate media company We Don't Have Time, which owns a 25% stake in W.read 24 Sep 2026
07ProtocolWho writes the rules of the network?

Bluesky Social PBC · United States

protocol: AT Protocol

W's terms and FAQ now state the AT Protocol openly.

07Shared servicesWhat does it lean on but not run?

Bluesky Social PBC · United States

W runs its own account server, relay, feeds, labeler and a partial AppView. By default, though, it reads through Bluesky's AppView, to which it switched back on 17 August 2026. Direct messages, video upload, GIFs, link cards, analytics beacons and feature flags also run on Bluesky services, and identities sit in the PLC directory.

  • W FAQDuring the public beta, however, some user experiences and services may continue to rely on shared or third-party AT Protocol infrastructure, including components originally developed by Bluesky.read 24 Sep 2026
  • W post, 16 Aug 2026Some W users experienced problems today because W was relying on Bluesky’s AppView.read 24 Sep 2026
  • measured · api.bsky.app · AS19317 Bluesky Social PBC · 24 Sep 2026 · the default AppView, reached through W's server
  • measured · api.bsky.chat · AS16509 Amazon · 24 Sep 2026 · direct messages; AWS us-east-2
  • measured · plc.directory · AS16509 Amazon · 24 Sep 2026 · AWS us-east-2
07CodeWho builds the software?

W Social AB · Sweden

also Bluesky Social PBC · United States: wrote the upstream code W forks, including, by inference from its bundle, the client

licence: proprietary client; public forks of Bluesky's server code keep their upstream licences

repository

The client is closed. A public fork of Bluesky's atproto code was online from January to March 2026 and has been removed; forks of the server (PDS) and the Ozone moderation tool remain public.

07VerificationWho checks users' identity, age or account?

W Identity AB · Sweden

also Trust Anchor Group AB · Sweden: W Identity's processor; runs the verification servers and reviews images manually

checks: identity

ID needed to post: yes

A passport photo or a scan of its chip, plus a selfie matched to the passport photo, is needed to post, comment or message; browsing needs none. W Identity AB is a sister company at W's address with the same chair and CEO. W receives only an account number, the passport's country and the year of birth.

06ModelsWhose models moderate, rank or check?

European Commission (eTranslation) · European Union

Machine translation since September 2026, replacing Google Translate. Face matching in W Identity, and the automated systems for spam, labelling, recommendations and moderation support, come from vendors W does not name.

05DataWhere does the data sit?

W Social AB · Finland

also Bluesky Social PBC · United States: serves content through its AppView and receives federated posts

where: The EEA where possible, per the privacy notice. The FAQ puts accounts on W's own server in the EU, which measures at UpCloud in Finland.

transfers: Allowed under GDPR Chapter V, with no processors outside the EEA named. Public posts reach AT Protocol services outside the EEA, Bluesky's among them; interactions with third-party services a user asks for rest on Article 49(1)(b).

  • W privacy notice, international transfersWe aim to process and store personal data within the European Economic Area where possible.read 24 Sep 2026
  • W FAQYour data is hosted by W on a Personal Data Server (PDS) in the EU, controlled by a European company.read 24 Sep 2026
04ServersWho runs the servers?

UpCloud · Finland

W's account server, AppView, relay and the W Identity backend all sit behind an UpCloud load balancer. The same server hosts the AT Protocol accounts of the European Commission and of its President.

04EdgeWho stands in front of them?

Bunny.net · Slovenia

At the point of measurement, Bunny served W from a Datacamp (CDN77) network registered in London.

  • measured · wsocial.eu · AS60068 CDN77 (Datacamp Ltd) · 24 Sep 2026 · BunnyCDN pull zone
  • measured · cdn.wsocial.eu · AS60068 CDN77 (Datacamp Ltd) · 24 Sep 2026 · images

where a claim in circulation is wrong

Checked 24 Sep 2026.