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Governments want to move away from “platforms over which we have no control,” says Dutch minister. Sure, that is fair enough. But why is EU not setting up thei

Governments want to move away from “platforms over which we have no control,” says Dutch minister. Sure, that is fair enough. But why is EU not setting up their own servers for whisper or activity pub or whatever OSS protocols and just make that their only official and approved communication channel?

galbar 6mo ago
It is my understanding that a lot of EU governments are setting up their own matrix servers.
- Arathorn 6mo ago
  This is true. We just published a map of it: https://element.io/en/matrix-in-europe https://element.io/en/matrix-in-europe
  - wolvoleo 6mo ago
    Question, with so many major orgs using it, are there no plans for manual status? The one thing I miss vis-a-vis teams is the ability to manually set myself away, appear offline, busy etc. Matrix shows me as active (green dot) when I have the client open but there's no way to override that. At least none that I found. I'm a bit surprised all these big governmental clients didn't ask for such a feature :)
    - Arathorn 6mo ago
      There's a big gap between lots of orgs using it, and lots of orgs paying for development of it. That said, BWI in Germany is currently funding custom status so it should be coming soon :)
      - wolvoleo 6mo ago
        Ohh nice to hear it's coming. But sorry that they are not contributing. That's pretty bad tbh.
  - xethos 6mo ago
    Clicking through and stumbling upon Croatia, which specifies only "Classified deployment", has left me absolutely cackeling. Seems hilarious that they're willing to say that they use it, but unwilling to state if it's for early testing, civilian-level beaurocracy, or Croatia's equivalent of specialized armed forces. That they publicly use it at all is great though, as it likely helps shift the Overton window of what's normal, and what fits standard useage of Matrix-Synapse
    - DarkUranium 6mo ago
      I hope they don't, considering Matrix's handling of security is on the level of a bumbling toddler.
      - Arathorn 6mo ago
        If you're talking about https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/analysis-of-reported-issues-in-vodozemac https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/analysis-of-reported-issues-..., I'm not entirely sure that characterisation is accurate :)
    - Arathorn 6mo ago
      It's more that they haven't gone public with it yet, and it's not for us to out them :)
p2detar 6mo ago
I'd really want to see more examples of https://social.bund.de https://social.bund.de This is the Mastodon server of the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI). Embrace decentralization.
- p4bl0 6mo ago
  Here is one of the French government: https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/ https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/
llacane 6mo ago
Actually European Commission has been on its own Mastodon server for a couple years: https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/public/local https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/public/local
polski-g 6mo ago
They're setting up matrix servers. Nato uses matrix. Too bad the UX is dogshit and the end users lose their keys every 90 days. Even though they're explicitly warned, loudly and clearly, to not lose the keys. Matrix software stack isn't idiot proof; Signal is.
- wolvoleo 6mo ago
  The key is only necessary as a backup these days. You can share the key from one client to another which works well. As long as the user has a laptop and phone it should be ok unless they lose both. But yeah it would be nice if the key could be escrowed somewhere for big organisations.
p4bl0 6mo ago
They do, actually. For example the French government has its own Matrix platform https://www.tchap.gouv.fr/ https://www.tchap.gouv.fr/ and its own Mastodon instance https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/ https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/.
jandrewrogers 6mo ago
The problem isn't setting up the servers, they already exist for the most part. It is getting anyone to use them. I've seen this play out a few times in Europe. People are extremely resistant to giving up WhatsApp. These rules are so widely flouted that no one takes them seriously, including the people making the rules. It is a bit of theater, meanwhile everyone continues to use WhatsApp. There is no will to actually make this change. If your boss keeps sending you messages over WhatsApp, why would you do any different?
- wolvoleo 6mo ago
  At my workplace we only use WhatsApp for personal comms. Like chatting about which restaurant we go for lunch, who's at the office tomorrow, when is everyone's birthday, what did we do this weekend, that kinda stuff. For work related stuff we use teams and that it's kinda needed too because we can only link to internal resources there, like SharePoint.
  - wink 6mo ago
    I mean at least you have teams as an alternative. Where my wife works they simply have a WhatsApp group because there _is_ no messenger, and while they don't use it for work stuff, they couldn't even have anything but group emails for discussing lunch plans or reaching someone who is not present at the office without calling (and in the case of reaching someone, they don't have access to anything on personal devices and they 90% have no work phones).
- pesus 6mo ago
  Maybe I'm just too American to understand, but it still baffles me that WhatsApp is used for business purposes. It makes a lot more sense for regular personal messaging, but it seems incredibly unprofessional to me. I would think it bizarre and a bit invasive if my boss tried to text or iMessage me. Are they at least using different accounts for work messaging? Not to mention the app itself was pretty mediocre last time I used it, but that's neither here nor there...
  - 6mo ago
lbreakjai 6mo ago
Aren't they about to handle DigiD to the U.S? You know, the tool we use for absolutely any sort of identification when interacting with the government?
esbranson 6mo ago
The fact that many replies mention Matrix and the Politico article does not is hilarious. Why even bother with major news orgs anymore?

galbar 6mo ago

It is my understanding that a lot of EU governments are setting up their own matrix servers.

Arathorn 6mo ago
This is true. We just published a map of it: https://element.io/en/matrix-in-europe https://element.io/en/matrix-in-europe
- wolvoleo 6mo ago
  Question, with so many major orgs using it, are there no plans for manual status? The one thing I miss vis-a-vis teams is the ability to manually set myself away, appear offline, busy etc. Matrix shows me as active (green dot) when I have the client open but there's no way to override that. At least none that I found. I'm a bit surprised all these big governmental clients didn't ask for such a feature :)
  - Arathorn 6mo ago
    There's a big gap between lots of orgs using it, and lots of orgs paying for development of it. That said, BWI in Germany is currently funding custom status so it should be coming soon :)
    - wolvoleo 6mo ago
      Ohh nice to hear it's coming. But sorry that they are not contributing. That's pretty bad tbh.
- xethos 6mo ago
  Clicking through and stumbling upon Croatia, which specifies only "Classified deployment", has left me absolutely cackeling. Seems hilarious that they're willing to say that they use it, but unwilling to state if it's for early testing, civilian-level beaurocracy, or Croatia's equivalent of specialized armed forces. That they publicly use it at all is great though, as it likely helps shift the Overton window of what's normal, and what fits standard useage of Matrix-Synapse
  - DarkUranium 6mo ago
    I hope they don't, considering Matrix's handling of security is on the level of a bumbling toddler.
    - Arathorn 6mo ago
      If you're talking about https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/analysis-of-reported-issues-in-vodozemac https://matrix.org/blog/2026/02/analysis-of-reported-issues-..., I'm not entirely sure that characterisation is accurate :)
  - Arathorn 6mo ago
    It's more that they haven't gone public with it yet, and it's not for us to out them :)

p2detar 6mo ago

I'd really want to see more examples of https://social.bund.de https://social.bund.de This is the Mastodon server of the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI). Embrace decentralization.

p4bl0 6mo ago
Here is one of the French government: https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/ https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/

llacane 6mo ago

Actually European Commission has been on its own Mastodon server for a couple years: https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/public/local https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/public/local

polski-g 6mo ago

They're setting up matrix servers. Nato uses matrix. Too bad the UX is dogshit and the end users lose their keys every 90 days. Even though they're explicitly warned, loudly and clearly, to not lose the keys. Matrix software stack isn't idiot proof; Signal is.

wolvoleo 6mo ago
The key is only necessary as a backup these days. You can share the key from one client to another which works well. As long as the user has a laptop and phone it should be ok unless they lose both. But yeah it would be nice if the key could be escrowed somewhere for big organisations.

p4bl0 6mo ago

They do, actually. For example the French government has its own Matrix platform https://www.tchap.gouv.fr/ https://www.tchap.gouv.fr/ and its own Mastodon instance https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/ https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/.

jandrewrogers 6mo ago

The problem isn't setting up the servers, they already exist for the most part. It is getting anyone to use them. I've seen this play out a few times in Europe. People are extremely resistant to giving up WhatsApp. These rules are so widely flouted that no one takes them seriously, including the people making the rules. It is a bit of theater, meanwhile everyone continues to use WhatsApp. There is no will to actually make this change. If your boss keeps sending you messages over WhatsApp, why would you do any different?

wolvoleo 6mo ago
At my workplace we only use WhatsApp for personal comms. Like chatting about which restaurant we go for lunch, who's at the office tomorrow, when is everyone's birthday, what did we do this weekend, that kinda stuff. For work related stuff we use teams and that it's kinda needed too because we can only link to internal resources there, like SharePoint.
- wink 6mo ago
  I mean at least you have teams as an alternative. Where my wife works they simply have a WhatsApp group because there _is_ no messenger, and while they don't use it for work stuff, they couldn't even have anything but group emails for discussing lunch plans or reaching someone who is not present at the office without calling (and in the case of reaching someone, they don't have access to anything on personal devices and they 90% have no work phones).
pesus 6mo ago
Maybe I'm just too American to understand, but it still baffles me that WhatsApp is used for business purposes. It makes a lot more sense for regular personal messaging, but it seems incredibly unprofessional to me. I would think it bizarre and a bit invasive if my boss tried to text or iMessage me. Are they at least using different accounts for work messaging? Not to mention the app itself was pretty mediocre last time I used it, but that's neither here nor there...
- 6mo ago

lbreakjai 6mo ago

Aren't they about to handle DigiD to the U.S? You know, the tool we use for absolutely any sort of identification when interacting with the government?

esbranson 6mo ago

The fact that many replies mention Matrix and the Politico article does not is hilarious. Why even bother with major news orgs anymore?