EU Commission Registers Initiative for a Citizen-Funded Social Network

The European Commission has registered the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) titled "European Public Social Network", which calls for the legislative establishment of a public social media platform at the European level, as an alternative to the dominant commercial services. The initiative carries the identification number ECI 2026/000004 and marks a formal step: the Commission has verified its legal admissibility and confirmed that the proposal does not exceed its competencies, is not abusive, and does not contradict the values of the Union.

According to the text of the initiative, the platform should function as a service to society, funded by the community and under its supervision, able to remain neutral and independent from political pressures while ensuring the rights of all citizens without distinction. The proposal fits into an increasingly heated European debate on digital governance: according to Eurobarometer data, 65% of young people aged 15 to 24 use social networks as their primary source of information on social and political news, a figure that has long fueled concerns about misinformation and algorithmic dependency.

Admissibility and Next Steps

The registration does not imply that the Commission has made a judgment on the merits of the proposal nor that it has committed to act. For the European executive to be obligated to respond and evaluate any legislative measures, the initiative must gather at least 1,000,000 declarations of support from EU citizens, with minimum thresholds met in at least 7 Member States. Organizers have six months to open the signature collection period, which will then last for 12 months. For more information on the mechanism of ECIs and ongoing initiatives, we refer you to the official initiative page.

The initiative comes at a time when the EU is already experimenting with tools such as an age verification app designed to protect minors from harmful content and addictive algorithms, currently being tested in five countries, including Italy. Concurrently, a "coalition of digital volunteers" led by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and composed of six Member States is pushing to set the minimum age for access to commercial platforms at 16 years. The ECI for a public European social network fits into this broader context of institutional and civil pressure for greater digital sovereignty of the Union.

Regulatory Context

Since 2012, the year of the official launch of the instrument, the Commission has registered 128 citizens' initiatives, of which 14 have reached a million signatures. The most recent successful one is "Stop Destroying Videogames". The ECI was introduced with the Lisbon Treaty as a tool of direct democracy: it does not force the Commission to adopt a law, but compels it to publicly justify its position. For the initiative on the public social network, the challenge of collecting signatures now rests entirely in the hands of the organizers.