The social media landscape has welcomed a new player. Epsilon, the new “made in France” social network, is entering the market with a user experience and underlying structure reminiscent of X (formerly Twitter). The platform presents itself as a non-partisan network dedicated to debate, culture and education. Its ambition is clear: foster the exchange of ideas and make it the very core of its model. Available as of today on the App Store and Google Play in French and English, the app is initially targeting creators, journalists and media outlets to build its community.

The launch comes in a sector largely dominated by non-European players. According to GWI (cited by DataReportal), internet users aged 16 and over use an average of six to seven social platforms each month. This multiplicity of uses reinforces the role of these players in access to information and everyday interactions. X, Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok, American and Chinese platforms, account for a large share of public debate and content circulation in Europe. This reliance on foreign platforms is causing growing concern: 72% of French respondents surveyed by Ipsos for Médias en Seine say they are worried about the situation, while 80% want a rebalancing at the European level.

Against this backdrop, the project was conceived with the idea of creating a social network where content distribution mechanisms are more controlled and understandable for users.

“What drove us to create Epsilon was the realization that public debate has deteriorated on today's social networks. The race for attention and the economy of outrage have taken center stage, at the expense of nuance,” explains Thomas Rocafull, co-founder of the platform alongside Stéphane Dubreuil.

This philosophy is reflected first and foremost in the news feed. Epsilon says it does not rank content according to the number of reactions it generates. Ranking rules are defined and published in advance, with the aim of promoting information, culture and educational topics rather than posts that generate the most conflict.

The network thus claims to operate without an opaque algorithm and without reselling data. To achieve this, Epsilon plans to implement “proactive” moderation: every piece of content is reviewed before being published. The platform wants to draw an explicit line between freedom of expression and insults or calls to hatred, in order to avoid the escalation mechanisms that govern online discussions today. To deliver this technological feat without bringing conversations to a standstill, moderation relies on artificial intelligence developed by French AI startup Mistral.

This desire to regain control also extends to the handling of personal data. Epsilon says its development, hosting and technological building blocks are entirely European and operate under the strict framework of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). No personal data will be sold, transferred or used for advertising profiling, and the source code for the algorithms is presented as public and auditable.

Epsilon is launching at a time when alternatives to social media giants are multiplying. Bulle in France, Monnett in Luxembourg and Bluesky in the United States, originally launched by Jack Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder (now X), are each exploring their own approaches to building more open, transparent models that are less dependent on targeted advertising.