Concrete European alternatives to X: Mastodon and Open Portability

Dear Alexandra Geese,
Dear Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová,
Dear fellow signatories and Members of the European Parliament,

Thank you for your strong and timely letter addressing the ongoing crisis on X. Your assessment is clear: X is no longer a safe, open or balanced platform for democratic debate. Your arguments align with those set out in our Open Letter to All European Politicians and Leaders to Abandon X/Twitter, which was written more than a year ago and has been endorsed by over three thousand people.

In your letter, you rightly highlight two structural problems that keep millions of Europeans trapped on X: the lack of viable alternatives and the absence of simple, user-friendly portability mechanisms. I would like to draw your attention to two solutions that already exist and can be adopted immediately.

1. Mastodon as a mature, European alternative #

Mastodon is a decentralised social network based on open standards. It is widely used by journalists, academics, civil society organisations and public institutions across Europe. It offers chronological timelines and transparent moderation, and does not use engagement-boosting algorithms with biased agendas.

Importantly, the European Commission already operates its own official Mastodon instance, as do several European governments. This could be used by Members of the European Parliament and EU institutions for official communication: @EUCommission@ec. social-network.europa.eu.

This infrastructure is already in place, aligning perfectly with the European values of digital sovereignty, openness and user protection.

2. Open Portability: a simple way out of lock-in #

The portability problem you describe already has a concrete solution: Open Portability offers users a simple way to migrate their X accounts, including content and social connections, to Mastodon or Bluesky. The platform is open and usable by everyone, developed as part of the OpenPortability research project of ISC-PIF and hosted by CNRS/ISC-PIF.

It reduces the psychological and technical barriers to leaving X, showing how portability rights can be made practical. This approach shifts the burden away from users and challenges platform lock-in directly by design.

Together, Mastodon and Open Portability demonstrate that Europeans are not ‘stuck’ due to a lack of alternatives, but rather because these alternatives have not yet been clearly endorsed, promoted and legitimised by public institutions.

Time to Act #

Your letter powerfully argues that public authorities should avoid communicating on platforms that expose women to harm and undermine democratic discourse. Adopting and actively promoting existing alternatives would set a strong example for citizens, journalists, and civil society to follow.

The challenge remains significant, however: nearly 60% of Members of the European Parliament are still active on X, which highlights the scale of the problem and the need for clear, visible institutional leadership. To support such leadership in practice, initiatives that recognise and encourage peer persuasion among MEPs could also play a constructive role.

I hope that these words will now be followed by concrete action.