Kim Van Sparrentak (Verts/ALE). – For the first time in Europe, in Romania, elections were annulled because of online foreign interference via TikTok. We need to wake up. Hyper-personalised recommender systems based on clicks and interaction are a threat to our democracy and national security. Whoever knows how to play them can manipulate the information people get to see online. Big fear mongering or extreme narratives – platforms will spread them to as many people as possible, because people will respond and that makes platforms the most profit. Then use bot networks to interact with your account, because with more clicks, the algorithms will spread your message like wildfire. Then pay influencers to spread your messages to new audiences without being transparent about it, and you can spread messages to an entire population.

This is how pro-Russian forces and Georgescu manipulated an entire election via TikTok. The way Big Tech's recommender systems currently work is the perfect handshake between tech capitalism, populism and foreign actors, and the Commission needs to make the DSA election proof before the German elections in February. Enforcement after foreign interference has already happened is simply too late. The Commission needs to make crystal clear and binding that recommender systems based on clicks and interaction are a direct threat to our democracy, and we should stop using them in the EU.