Eurosky launches mu – the first of a thousand social apps

Today, Eurosky launches mu, a microblogging application that serves as the testing ground for new social media experiences, built and hosted in Europe. Mu runs on the universal AT Protocol ecosystem, known as the Atmosphere. It currently has over 44 million users and includes apps like Bluesky, Flashes, Sill and Sifa.

“Mu is the first of a thousand apps. Big Tech forced us into one-size-fits-all platforms that are getting worse by the day. We can compete with them through an ecosystem of thousands of applications built for specific audience needs. This will empower people to curate their own social experiences while maintaining the ability to share content and communicate seamlessly.”

“We built mu in a month to demonstrate that, with the right infrastructure, new social experiences can be built quickly and efficiently. But this is just the start – by next year European publishers, businesses and organizations will be able to use Eurosky’s stack to create their own app, customized for their communities, in a matter of days. All on independent infrastructure hosted in Europe, governed by European laws”, said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Co-Founder of Eurosky.

Mu is accessible to any user with an existing Atmosphere account, such as Eurosky, Bluesky, or Tangled. Mu is available today on desktop and mobile browsers via mu.social, and later this summer in the iOS and Android stores.

Sebastian Vogelsang, Co-Founder of Eurosky, said: “mu is a canvas built for experimentation to bring new, delightful experiences to people. We are starting with microblogging as a social medium and we will expand from there. At launch, we are introducing several features that improve user experience such as a user customizable news feed from credible news sources, post editing and a new system to democratize account verification. We are building mu with some of the most talented developers in the open web ecosystem. Expect to see new features popping up every week.”

What comes next

For Eurosky the launch of mu is one step in a longer development roadmap towards a thriving open social ecosystem hosted and built in Europe. Future steps include:

• Custom apps built in partnership with businesses and other organisations seeking to build custom social experiences for their communities
• New social features, such as non-engagement seeking recommendation algorithms
• Building a common content moderation system that can be licensed as a service by all European app developers, lowering one of the biggest barriers to entry in the space
• A full suite of digital tools and services for European developers and user-centric monetization solutions

The full roadmap including funding opportunities can be found here. Eurosky is open to conversations with funders, investors and public service organisations looking to support the European open social web.

How mu’s account verification works

We know from the experience of the past two decades that giving just one company the right to decide who is and isn’t verified is a model that is bound to fail. Done right, account verification fosters trust by confirming an account’s authenticity. Our approach with mu utilizes a social proof model that mirrors offline trust, empowering credible organizations to verify their own accounts and members based on direct knowledge.

How it works: any credible organization across politics, media, research, academia, business, sports, arts and culture (among others) can become a trusted verifier and verify its own accounts and people. Because this can be resource intensive, we build on existing communities and are focusing first on:

• MEPs, MPs and government agencies in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain
• Media organizations in these countries

Organizations can apply for trusted verifier status by emailing verification@mu.social. Organizations from all European countries are welcome to get in touch and we will contact them at the earliest opportunity.

Background

Across Europe momentum is building under the frame of “tech sovereignty”, aimed at reducing the continent’s reliance on foreign technology through building up its own capacity. On 3 June, the European Commission presented its much anticipated “Tech Sovereignty Package”, which included a non-binding open source strategy aimed at leveraging Europe’s strong history of building on open technologies. Eurosky and mu are taking it further, faster.

On 5 June Eurosky and its parent organization, the Modal Foundation, together with open social organizations including New_Public, Save Social, Mastodon and the Newsmast Foundation launched The European Social Stack declaration. We present a united front to build a thriving European tech model in the social space and replace the legacy social platforms that are openly undermining democracy, pushing toxic content, and propagating scams.