Social App Builders Push EU Network Portability
The proposal would tie platform switching to a portable personal data server, with the Commission's Digital Fairness Act due 11 November.
Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Internet
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More than 35 social app builders have urged the European Commission to create a legal right for users to take their social networks with them when switching platforms. The proposal is an advocacy statement, not a law; it is aimed at the Commission's planned Digital Fairness Act.
Why it matters
The request reframes platform lock-in as a consumer harm, comparable to deceptive design, and pushes portability from a data-download feature toward an enforceable interoperability requirement. Signatories say current data downloads offered by mainstream platforms are not useful for actually moving a social graph.
The evidence is a policy statement signed by more than 35 social app builders, with no measured performance figures or benchmarks reported. What remains unresolved is how a portability right would be technically specified, since the signatories have proposed a personal data server requirement but the stub gives no implementation details.
The players
European Commission
The EU executive body that proposes legislation, including the planned Digital Fairness Act and the Digital Markets Act.
Eurosky
An alternative social network whose co-lead Sherif Elsayed-Ali signed the joint statement.
IPFS Project
An open-source decentralised content network whose representative Robin Berjon signed the joint statement.
The details
The signatories propose that every social media account be backed by a personal data server, a store the user controls that holds their profile and content independently of any single app. They also want interoperability rules, meaning the technical requirement that different services can exchange data and connect with each other, applied to every platform through the Digital Fairness Act. The Digital Markets Act already applies interoperability rules to large platforms, but it does not cover all leading social media services, and X's ban on account matching falls outside the EU's enforcement scope.
Timeline
The Commission is scheduled to present the Digital Fairness Act on 11 November.
The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive is widely expected to be tweaked alongside the new act.
The Tech Race
The push sits within the EU's sequence of platform rules, with the Digital Markets Act covering only some leading services and the Digital Fairness Act now the vehicle for broader consumer protections. Decentralised alternatives such as Eurosky and the IPFS Project are positioning themselves as the technical proof that portable social graphs are feasible.
Nothing changes for users yet: the portability right is only a proposal and no timeline for enforcement has been set. If adopted through the Digital Fairness Act, users in the EU could eventually move their social networks between apps rather than starting over.
The takeaway
The shift to watch is whether the Commission turns portability into a platform-wide obligation or leaves it to the narrower Digital Markets Act. The 11 November presentation of the Digital Fairness Act will show which path it takes.
What happens next
The European Commission is scheduled to present the Digital Fairness Act on 11 November, when the portability and interoperability proposals will be tested against the draft text.
Further reading
Explore more on the Internet beat for context on how platforms and regulators are shaping online services.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Euractiv DE.
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