Meta from Instagram and Facebook, Elon Musk from X (formerly Twitter), ByteDance from TikTok – billions of social media users interact with these products every day.
These and other technology corporations have become huge and powerful. But in recent years the EU has made considerable efforts to limit their influence. DW has the most important questions and answers.
Why is Big Tech being criticized?
Large corporations like Meta or ByteDance have enormous market power – the 3 billion Instagram users and nearly 2 billion TikTok users speak for themselves. Their influence extends beyond marketplace dominance, as platforms’ algorithms help determine which pieces of information reach us first and, to some extent, how we view the world through social media filters.
But critics say the platforms are not doing enough to tackle fake news, that they promote polarization, prioritize extreme content in their algorithms and neglect data security – for example, when it comes to personalized advertising and the training of related in-house artificial intelligence.
In Europe, several countries are debating banning social media for youth; Australia had already introduced one in December.
For several years, the EU has clashed with social media platforms over their moderation strategies, including Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. After being sold to South African billionaire Elon Musk and later rebranded as X in 2023, many users and advertising customers turned their backs on Twitter.
The Chinese TikTok platform has faced accusations of its closeness to the Chinese government and Communist Party, including concerns about censorship. And European security agencies have warned that TikTok, or ByteDance, is storing data to an unknown extent. If so, and for what purpose geopolitical rival China might be using the data, it is unclear.
Are there European social media alternatives?
There are already alternatives to Instagram, X and TikTok from Europe: Germany’s Mastodon platform is considered the most famous. France has launched PeerTube, developed by non-profit Framesoft, as an alternative to YouTube, which is provided by Google’s parent company Alphabet.
France’s BeReal app saw a slight increase in popularity in 2022. This concept allows users to post an image only once per day at different times, and that image cannot be changed. Its purpose is to limit addiction potential.
The Dutch network Eurosky, a platform for accessing independent social networks, stores data in a decentralized manner and in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
Sweden’s W Social, a less data-hungry alternative to X, launched on May 9 – Europe Day – in response to platforms being flooded with AI bots. In its own words, W Social is a social network “governed by EU law, with data hosted in Europe, and built for real, verified people.”
“In key security policy areas, authorities in European countries should only use products that are not under the control or access of non-European governments,” said Katharina Dröge, parliamentary leader of the Greens in Germany’s parliament.
Supporting that stance, Hanna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice president in charge of technological sovereignty, has maintained a Mastodon account through June 2025.
What do European platforms do differently?
The example of Mastodon uses the decentralized protocol ActivityPub, which is managed by the World Wide Web Consortium headed by the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee.
Mastodon is a part of Fediverse, a consortium of various independent, primarily Europe-based networks, including PeerTube. Fediverse platforms are based on open-source software, making them more cost-effective and more transparent than their US counterparts.
When programming their algorithms, providers avoid endless recommendation timelines and prioritization of extreme content, which primarily helps protect minors and prevent addiction.
What are the disadvantages of European social media providers?
Each social medium derives its appeal from the multitude of users, users, and advertisers generating reach and visibility. And this is where the main disadvantage of the Europeans comes into play: they are, after all, still too small to achieve worldwide relevance.
The main issues are the complex setup and user interface compared to major providers. “You need some explaining, because those options are not well known. And it’s possible that the applications don’t look exactly like what you’re used to,” Joachim Selzer of Germany’s Chaos Computer Club, one of Europe’s largest hacker associations, told German press service EPD. Switching to other applications may come with a “certain adjustment period.”
Mastodon now has about 10 million registered accounts and about 1 million active users per month, while video platforms under the PearTube umbrella host about 1 million videos, already making them European “giants”.
But for now, there is no sign that European alternatives will outperform their American or Chinese rivals.
This article was originally written in German.