He knows he wouldn’t have been elected without social media, but he called on Thursday to regulate it: Former US President Barack Obama gave a speech on Thursday in which he accused the big platforms of “humanity’s worst instincts “ To have largely strengthened.
“One of the main causes of the weakening of democracies is the profound change in the way we communicate and inform ourselves,” he told students at Stanford University in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley.
Admitting that without sites like MySpace or Facebook, the Democrat leader “may not have gotten elected” and spoke of the useful awareness-raising and mobilizing work being done by activists around the world through the networks.
Above all, however, he explained the downside of the success of Facebook or YouTube, whose business model – large-scale targeted advertising – is based on the attention economy. “Unfortunately, it’s inflammatory, polarizing content that grabs attention and drives user engagement,” he noted.
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disinformation
The former head of state (2009-2017) also addressed the phenomenon of disinformation and accused himself of not sufficiently recognizing “how receptive we have become to lies and conspiracy theories” before the election of his successor Donald Trump.
“Putin didn’t do that. He didn’t need it. We did this to ourselves,” he added, referring to Russia’s orchestrated vote-rigging campaigns.
“We just saw an incumbent president deny clear election results and helped incite a violent insurgency against the nation’s capital,” he said, referring to Donald Trump’s failure to recognize Joe Biden’s victory in late 2020, and encouraged his supporters before the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which left several dead.
“That has to be our alarm bell to react.”
Barack Obama therefore called for the laws governing social networks to be reformed to make them more accountable and transparent, stating that at the heart of the disinformation, the problem is not so much “what people are posting” as “the content these platforms are posting support financially”. .
Proof that they are not “neutral” and that the algorithms need to be security checked by a regulator, just like cars, groceries and other consumer goods.
He then went on to explain a set of values he believes should guide content moderation, such as: B. Strengthening democracy and respect for differences.
“The tools don’t control us. We can control them,” he concluded.
Brussels tightens legislation
The EU member states, the Commission and Parliament passed new laws on Saturday that are intended to better combat Internet abuse such as hate speech, disinformation campaigns or the sale of counterfeit products. After several months of negotiations, an “agreement” was reached between the European institutions on the Digital Services Act (“DSA”), which obliges major platforms such as Facebook (Meta) or Amazon to better eliminate illegal and dangerous online content, the EU announced – Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, initiator of the project, with his competition colleague Margrethe Vestager on Twitter.
“This agreement is historic,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen immediately, “our new rules will protect users online, guarantee freedom of expression and opportunities for companies”.
“The DSA is a world first in terms of digital regulation,” said the Council of the EU, which represents the 27 member states, in a press release. The text “sanctifies the principle that what is illegal offline must also be illegal online. It aims to protect the digital space from the dissemination of illegal content and to ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of users”.
The regulation of digital services is one of the two parts of a grand plan put forward by the European executive in December 2020.
The first part, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which tackles anti-competitive practices, was completed at the end of March.
dark side
For its part, the DSA is updating the e-commerce policy that was launched 20 years ago when the giant platforms were still in their infancy.
Goal: put an end to the excesses of social networks that have often made headlines: assassination of history professor Samuel Paty in France after a hate campaign in October 2020, attack by protesters on the US Capitol in January 2021, partly planned thanks to Facebook and Twitter…
The dark side of the internet also affects sales platforms, which are overrun with counterfeit or faulty products that can be dangerous, such as children’s toys that don’t meet safety standards.
The new regulation establishes the obligation to remove illegal content (according to national and European law) “immediately” as soon as a platform becomes aware of it. It forces social networks to ban users who “frequently” break the law.
The DSA will oblige online sales sites to verify the identity of their suppliers before offering their products.
The project focuses on new commitments for “very large platforms”, those with “more than 45 million active users” in the EU, ie about twenty companies whose list is still to be determined, but which also includes Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) as well as Twitter and probably TikTok, Zalando or Booking.
These actors must themselves assess the risks associated with the use of their services and provide appropriate means to remove problematic content. More transparency is imposed on them about their data and recommendation algorithms.
They are audited once a year by independent bodies and are subject to the supervision of the European Commission, which can impose fines of up to 6% of their annual turnover in the event of repeated violations.
“In connection with the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the specific consequences for the manipulation of online information, a new article has been introduced to establish a response mechanism in case of a crisis,” the European Council said. This mechanism, activated by Commission decision, will make it possible to take “proportionate and effective” measures against very large platforms that would contribute to the spread of false information.
latribune.fr
Apr 24, 2022 3:48 p.m