Stephen Downes

The tagline is: "Join the first social media platform you can trust. Bot-free, fake-news-free, kids-safe, data-protective and made in Europe for Europe." But here's the catch: "anyone who wants to interact—that is, post, like, or comment—must verify their identity. This makes sense because it allows us to prevent bots from influencing the platform, curb fake accounts, and ensure significantly greater safety and respectful interaction among users." They argue "we have entered into a contract with the German company WebID, which securely hosts personal data on a European server in accordance with the highest data protection standards." Single point of failure. Ick. Via Ben Werdmuller.