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Leminal Space is moving to the EU in 2026
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this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
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Yes to all three. Regression of the political climate in the US makes me uneasy about operating services from there (even if it has been via an EU-based company up to this point). EU law also provides strong privacy protections against US overreach via apparatus such as the CLOUD Act and FISA 702, which can potentially allow US federal agencies to compel cloud service providers there to hand over any and all data they request - without any disclosure to us or you. We have been able to secure a more favourable deal on a root server in Germany, so there is some economic motivation.
I could be wrong I'm not a lawyer, assume everything I write from here is bullshit: but the EU seems to be possibly wanting to do the UK Online Safety Act equivalent starting July 2026:
https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2368265/online-services-get-up-to-12-months-to-apply-age-verification-eu-guidelines-say "Online services get up to 12 months to apply age verification, EU guidelines say" This was in July 2025.
EU guidelines in question seem to be: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-publishes-guidelines-protection-minors + https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/118226 Quotes:
"[...] the Union legislature enacted Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and the Council (6). Paragraph 1 of this provision obliges providers of online platforms [...] to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, [...]"
"Self-declaration is not considered to be an appropriate age-assurance measure as further explained below."
"In the following circumstances, [...] the Commission considers the use of access restrictions supported by age verification methods an appropriate and proportionate measure to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors: [...] an online platform accessible to minors has identified risks to minors' privacy, safety, or security, including content, conduct and consumer risks as well as contact risks (e.g., arising from features such as live chat, image/video sharing, anonymous messaging)"
"Age estimation methods can complement age verification technologies and can be used in addition to the former," (AKA the alternative to a literal gov ID check seems to be big data AI sucking up all user data to estimate user age.)
Perhaps 2026 isn't a good year to move social media to the EU. However, I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice and everything I said was potentially a misunderstanding of mine.
I completely forgot, perhaps the "micro and small enterprises exception" of the Digital Services Act applies, so perhaps leminal space might actually be exempt or whatever. Unless it grows, no idea what the actual threshold is. And assume I'm super wrong, don't trust me, ask somebody who knows what they're talking about.
But yeah, EU's outlook seems like a bit of a mess.