Our vision & FAQ
Our vision
The architects of Display believe in a European media, grounded in public values and inclusivity.
They contribute to a shared European media, because forces that disregard borders shape Europeans’ lives. They build a space, independent from governments as well as commercial influences, where Europeans – regardless of their background – can connect, share ideas, debate opinions, and find reliable information to hold the powerful to account.
Free and Trustworthy
Display Europe aims to provide citizens across the continent with trustworthy information and perspectives often overlooked by mainstream and national media. By focusing on translation, syndication, and originally created content, Display Europe seeks to offer a comprehensive view of Europe, from Cape Roca to the Ural watershed. Original content will include monthly regional and thematic press reviews, and multimedia cross-border projects on topics of European relevance and a weekly European talk show. It will serve as a free, central portal for curated content, searchable and translatable into 15 European languages.
Participate and Share
Committed to active public involvement, the platform will encourage European citizens to shape the media and its values actively. Features like the Article Club will connect readers with journalists, fostering a community mind-set in media production. Additionally, a dynamic user-generated content model will encourage users to share their unique European perspectives, supported by social media outreach and partnerships with aligned champions and organisations.
Safe and Ethical
As a federated network of existing platforms, Display Europe uses open-source software and open protocols based on privacy-friendly processes. The platform is built on a sovereign, self-governed, open-source digital infrastructure, ensuring independence from Big Tech social media and streaming platforms. Unlike other platforms out there, Display’s content recommendation algorithms guide users onto a mixed and balanced content journey. Display only collects personal data when given the green light, and users can opt out of data collection entirely.
Frequently asked questions
What is Display Europe?
Display Europe is a media platform offering a European perspective in 15 languages. It offers Display Originals and federated media content provided by a network of independent media organisations from across the continent. Anchored in public values and inclusivity, Display Europe is made from open-source software and breaks away from the unethical data collection practices of Big Tech. Its algorithms guide users on a mixed and balanced content experience.
Displayeurope.eu is a unique platform that provides access to a wide range of content from European media outlets. It aims to break filter bubbles and give citizens across Europe access to reliable information. The platform covers various aspects of Europe that may not be traditionally covered by mainstream or national media. Display Europe is revolutionizing the European media landscape by focusing on translation, syndication, and producing original content.
The development of displayeurope.eu is managed by a consortium with seventeen member from independent media and ethical tech sector, under the title Display Europe – Democracy Runs on Screens. The project has been co-funded with a grant from the European Union.
Additionally, Display Europe – Democracy Runs on Screens also manages two grant schemes – Display Europe Grant Call (closed) and Display Europe micro-grants Call (opened on the monthly rolling basis until March 31, 2023). For more information about the micro-grants Call, please see here. The grantees awarded through these grants will create content which will be showcased on the Display Europe.
How does Display Europe work?
Display Europe is a crucial piece of digital infrastructure that connects and provides access to a whole new layer of content across media outlets, publishing and broadcasting formats, regions and languages. It functions as a federated network of existing platforms that works with open-source software and open protocols based on privacy-friendly processes. It will provide a levelling board for media that may not be able to build and maintain costly and expensive digital infrastructures, yet have relevant content to offer international audiences. The consortium engages community media and small- and medium-sized content creators, and facilitate them as an expanding international professional community.
Who manages Display Europe?
Display Europe is run by a consortium of European Cultural Foundation (ECF), Cultural Broadcasting Archive (CBA), fairkom, Eurozine, Voxeurop, Hostwriter, Krytyka Polityczna, El Diario, Good Conversations, Public Spaces, Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE), Human, VPRO, Sound & Vision, YEPP Italia, Fanzingo and Schuman Show.
Is displayeurope.eu for free?
Content on the portal is open source and freely accessible without any paywall. However, recommendations will allow for directing to quality content behind paywalls on partners’ own webpages. This will also allow partners to promote their content via the platform. The platform operates on an open-source model and allows partners to promote their content through various chels, including social media, television, radio, and newspapers. This approach emphasizes collaboration and original content, rather than exclusive material.
Where does funding for Display Europe come from?
Display Europe – Democracy Runs on Screens is co-financed by the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology in the framework of the call for pilot project ‘’European Media Platforms’’. Additional funding is coming from the European Cultural Foundation and other partners in the consortium. On the longer term, Display Europe will be funded through a mix of public (European) funding, philanthropic funding and memberships, donations and subscriptions.
Can I participate at displayeurope.eu?
Yes you can. Display Europe provides an active public forum function in which European citizens are encouraged to share and experience information.
EUROPE TALKS
Display Europe will gradually increase opportunities for active engagement on the platform. As of spring 2024, readers can also voice their opinions and discuss broader political themes with other readers. Embedded in each of the articles on Display, there will be questionnaires to hear readers’ viewpoints on article themes and European politics. A matching algorithm will pair single participants with someone who thinks very differently from them, in another European country where possible.
ARTICLE CLUB
Original content, made for Display Europe will be featured in a monthly Article Club, in which the journalists involved open a public forum for discussion with users. The goal of the Article Club is to connect readers to the journalists behind the platform, and encourage journalists to take a community mind-set in the production and evaluation of their articles. The format will also allow journalists to turn to the audience for expertise and input in the writing of future articles.
SOCIAL MEDIA
On the longer term, Display Europe’s community engagement will evolve around a dynamic content model that encourages users to share their perspectives on Europe. The platform will embed open source social media strategies (particularly Mastodon) to foster conversations, promote content, and amplify core messages. Partnerships with influencers and organizations that align with Display Europe’s values are also a key part of its strategy.
What is different about Display Europe compared to other European media platforms?
- Display Europe is directly targeting citizens, as opposed to service platforms for other media.
- Display Europe will be covering all EU member states and several neighbouring countries, including Western Balkans and Ukraine.
- Display Europe is built by civil society and has no other interest than empowering the European democracy.
- Display Europe is based on open source technology which can be used by others.
- Display Europe breaks away from the unethical data collection practices of Big Tech.
- Display Europe is available in 15 languages.
In which languages is Display Europe available?
In its initial stage, Display Europe is available in the following languages
- English
- German
- Croatian / Bosnian / Serbian
- Czech
- Slovakian
- French
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Polish
- Spanish
- Dutch
- Portuguese
- Ukrainian
- Russian
- Turkish
In later stages more languages, such as Arabic, Romanian and Swedish will be added.
Will there be original content created?
Editorial partners Eurozine (AUT), Voxeurop (FR), Krytyka Polityczna (PL), ElDiario (ESP) and HUMAN (NL) are responsible for the creation of the Display Originals. The original content includes a weekly European talkshow, monthly regional and thematic press reviews and multi-media cross border projects on urgent topics of European relevance.
What is the backstory to Display?
In response to the growing need for a public sphere that transcends economic, social, cultural, or national backgrounds, the European Cultural Foundation conducted a series of online and offline workshops in 2020 and 2021. These workshops brought together journalists, researchers, and citizens to envision a networked European media model, free from market and government influences. After an Open Call in 2021, the European Cultural Foundation issues several grants aimed at fostering journalistic cross-border collaboration and the development of a digital infrastructure based on public values.
In parallel, a group of media activists, researchers and initiatives formed 2020 the coalition Shared Digital European Public Sphere (SDEPS.eu). The discourse within the coalition and an outlook of a possible architecture was summarized in the publication „Building a European Digital Public Space“, Strategies for taking back control from Big Tech platforms (2021) https://www.irights-lab.de/publikationen/dps. Building upon these discussions, a hackathon took place 2022 in Linz https://cba.media/building-a-european-cultural-backbone.
Collaboration between ECF’s grantees and the network established at the hackathon culminated in the creation of Display Europe.
The platform aims to provide a pan-European perspective and a space where shared European interests can be discussed. It wants to counteract the loss of trust in public discussions and media, and stand against fact-free populist ideas and the exclusion of certain groups in traditional media.
Display Europe has the potential to contribute to a crucial digital infrastructure for Europe, levelling the playing field for media outlets and content creators. Its launch signifies not only the introduction of a new media platform, but also a new era in European media where diversity, inclusivity, and public values take center stage.
Do I have to pay to be able to use displayeurope.eu?
Content is for free, but you can support this with a small amount in order to be less dependent of EU funding.
We will offer a subscription service in 2024 to support the maintenance of the platform, the production of content and the providing of the Mastodon and more upcoming services.
In the meantime you can donate to the European Cultural Foundation at https://culturalfoundation.iraiser.eu/support/~my-donation. ECF as a founding member will relay those donations to Display Europe.
I am a community media member, how can I join and cross-share content with you?
Our network warmly extends an invitation to individuals and organizations to join as partners in a collaborative federation that celebrates shared values and cross-continental insights. Please find the link here to the site’s footer text ‘’Become a medie partner’’, where more detail about the onboarding process is provided.
What is the governance structure of Display Europe?
Display Europe is in the process of transforming into a cooperative, embracing a cooperative model recognized for its dedication to members and sustainable value creation within the platform. Unlike traditional venture capital-funded platforms, cooperatives prioritize the interests of their members and reinvest jointly created value into the platform, fostering a business strategy that upholds the platform’s service quality without excessive commercialization.
We extend our invitation to individuals and organizations aligning with our vision to come together and create a transformative cooperative that redefines the European media landscape. Together, we aspire to build a platform that embodies collaboration, innovation, and the collective pursuit of a digital public space for all.
If you share our vision and wish to become a member of this exciting venture, we invite you to reach out to coop@displayeurope.eu.
To learn more about the objectives, strategies, motivation, and milestone for the Coop please check out the Display Europe Cooperative text in site’s footer location (link).
You are open-sourced, however I see LinkedIn and Instagram on your site?
Yes, we are an open-source platform and promote the use of open-source social media practices such as PeerTube and Mastodon, however, for initial promotion of the project we are using social media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook and LinkdIn. We mostly do not display our content there, only teasers. However, we are advocating for using the open-source social media accounts with ethical standard instead of the mainstream media ones.
Which open source technologies do we use?
We prefer using frameworks, that speak ActivityPub, which is the protocol for the Fediverse. That allows us to exchange content very easily in any direction.
- PeerTube for video distribution
- Mastodon for microblogging
- CBA for audio
- Discourse for discussions (to be integrated 2024)
For other infrastructure parts we solely use Open Source tools such as
- Keycloak (Single Sign On) https://key.displayeurope.eu
- Minio (Storage & CDN)
- kubernetes (cloud computing)
- Matomo (Statistics)
- phplist for newsletters
- WordPress
- Nextcloud
