This opinion piece argues that Europe should “shut down recommender algorithms” of the big US social media platforms - Facebook, X, Instagram, etc. - because the author believes that these algorithms are undermining European democracy.
The most obvious example of such an algorithm is on X, where Musk can manipulate the algorithm to boost European far-right parties, like AfD. But the author argues that other social media CEOs, like Zuck, are beholden to Trump’s anti-liberal agenda - for example, Trump “openly threatened to throw Mark Zuckerberg in jail for the rest of his life”. Therefore: “It is reasonable to assume that tech oligarchs will do what [Trump] tells them”, which may include the Trump administration pressuring US social media companies to recommend more right-wing content.
So the author says: “The EU must immediately switch off the tech companies’ algorithms on its soil, at least until they are proven safe for democracy”. Do you agree with that?
This feels like a third world country demanding that the colonial power should run their schools and rise engineers so that the country can move up the production chain in a generation or two.
Edit:
If this is an online war, how could that be won with regulations? It’s worse than regulating the banking sector, it’s impossible to audit the constantly changing systems.
Remember when Germany made search engines pay for news? Google negotiated an agreement, all other competitors had problems.
The obvious and easiest solution would be shifiting to the fediverse. If all institutions move their accounts there would be enough momentum to make the switch.