A new European social network, eYou, which offers AI-powered fact-checking in real time, promises the renaissance of social media.
When Romania-based French entrepreneur Grégoire Vigroux saw Elon Musk’s posts on his X feed, even though he had never followed the American tech billionaire, he was disappointed that the platform, which was meant to connect people, had become a tool of influence.
Vigroux turned his disappointment into action and, together with his business partner, Jasseem Allybokus, surveyed 400 people to understand what challenges they face on social media.
The poll revealed that 89% of users reported encountering fake news or disinformation on social networks. More than nine in ten (93%) said they believe algorithms trap them in echo chambers.
This led to the creation of the eYou social media platform, officially launched on May 5th, 2025, which promises to address these concerns. But will it find its users amid the domination of American networks?
Multiple AI fact-checkers
The platform is marketed as providing real-time fact-checking of any type of content, including images, powered by AI.
Vigroux says fact-checking is performed by several frontier large language models (LLMs), AI systems powering popular chatbots, to avoid hallucinations and biases inherent in the training data.
“Having multiple LLMs competing with one another, we can provide more accurate fact-checking,” Vigroux tells Cybernews.
AI-driven real-time fact-checking is also present on X, which directly integrates the chatbot Grok. Data suggests it is often used as “a rhetorical weapon rather than a neutral tool,” with confirmatory outputs traveling farther than disconfirmatory ones.
A 2026 study that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed found that out of 100 posts, human fact-checkers agreed with 54.5% of Grok ratings and 57.7% of Perplexity ratings. However, API-access versions of Grok had higher agreement with fact-checkers.
As eYou emphasizes neutral information sources, its feed is divided into 3 sections: content from people the user follows, content from people they don’t know yet, and the “Pulse,” which integrates news from Agence France-Presse (AFP), with Reuters coming soon.
Vigroux says this allows users to access news while it is still very fresh. After all, over half of US adults get news from social media at least sometimes, with similar trends observed in the UK and other European countries.
“Fake news spreads 6 times faster than real news, and on some social media apps, the algorithms encourage fake news because they have the potential to become more viral than something that is actually true,” he adds.
Keeping Europeans’ data in Europe
eYou is launched amid growing European efforts to achieve digital sovereignty, particularly from the US and China, fueled by concerns about data flowing outside the continent and potential “kill switch” scenarios.
When it comes to social media, dependence is especially stark. The European market is currently dominated by American-owned networks: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
We take inspiration from the actual Renaissance and what Europe produced in the world of arts and painting. We want to create something truly European that addresses a global audience.
Grégoire Vigroux
Vigroux says all eYou user data is stored in Belgium and protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), shielding it from being accessed by US authorities.
And while the platform doesn’t aim to compete with the US or Chinese social media giants, Vigroux says there’s room for a new platform born in Europe with European values. Or, as he puts it, the social media renaissance.
“We take inspiration from the actual Renaissance and what Europe produced in the world of arts and painting. We want to create something truly European that addresses a global audience,” Vigroux tells Cybernews.
As of now, most eYou users are from Romania, where the company operates. Interestingly, there is a growing number of users from the US, who, according to Vigroux, may want something different and a more positive social media.
“We are addressing the people who are tired of traditional social media chasing clicks. We want to put back some kind of responsibility in social media,” he explains.
Users may decide upon monetization
Standing out in an oversaturated market may be a challenge for a new social media platform. French BeReal took the world by storm in 2022, but the number of active users has sharply decreased in recent years.
Mass migration from X to BlueSky and Mastodon after Musk acquired the platform has also been limited in success, with many users returning to their established networks on X.
Nevertheless, Vigroux and other European founders are hopeful. W, marketed as a direct alternative to X, is coming soon. Over 65,000 people have already joined Monnett, often referred to as “European Instagram.”
Vigroux hopes that those who care about European data sovereignty and European identity will not only come to try eYou but also stay.
As eYou just secured €300,000 ($351,000) in pre-seed funding, he says the company doesn’t have concrete monetization plans in the near future. Therefore, it is free of advertising.
However, Vigroux doesn’t rule out that when the user count is in the millions, eYou may ask them to vote on how the platform should be monetized without going “against our values.”
He says, “Having a more user-centric social media app is the direction we want to take.”
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