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  • Hamas hate videos make Elon Musk Europe’s digital enemy No. 1

    Hamas hate videos make Elon Musk Europe’s digital enemy No. 1

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    Elon Musk has made himself Europe’s digital public enemy No. 1.

    Since Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday, the billionaire’s social network X has been flooded with gruesome images, politically-motivated lies and terrorist propaganda that authorities say appear to violate both its own policies and the European Union’s new social media law.

    Now Musk is facing the threat of sanctions — including potentially hefty fines — as officials in Brussels start gathering evidence in preparation for a formal investigation into whether X has broken the European Union’s rules. Authorities in the U.K. and Germany have joined the criticism.

    The tussle represents a critical test for all sides. Musk will be keen to fight any claim that he’s failing to be a responsible owner of the social network formerly known as Twitter — all while upholding his commitment to free speech. The EU will want to show its new regulation, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), has teeth.

    Thierry Breton, Europe’s commissioner in charge of social media content rules, demanded that Musk explain why graphic images and disinformation about the Middle East crisis were widespread on X.

    “I urge you to ensure a prompt, accurate and complete response to this request within the next 24 hours,” Breton wrote on X late Tuesday.

    “We will include your answer in our assessment file on your compliance with the DSA,” said Breton, who also wrote to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to remind him of his obligations under Europe’s rules. TikTok’s head Shou Zi Chew was also asked on October 12 to explain how his platform was dealing with misinformation and graphic content.

    “I remind you that following the opening of a potential investigation and a finding of non-compliance, penalties can be imposed,” Breton said. Those fines can total up to 6 percent of a company’s global revenue.

    In response, Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, wrote to Breton Thursday to outline how the social media giant had responded to the ongoing Middle East conflict. That included removing or labelling potentially harmful content, working with law enforcement agencies and adding so-called “community notes,” or crowd-sourced fact-checks, to posts.

    The heat on Twitter did not begin with the Hamas attacks. Ever since Musk bought the platform, he’s been hit by criticism that he’s failing to stop hate speech from spreading online.

    X has cut back on its content moderation teams, in the spirit of promoting free speech; pulled out of a Brussels-backed pledge to tackle digital foreign interference; and tweaked its social media algorithms to promote often shady content over verified material from news organizations and politicians.

    Musk has responded — via his social media account with 159 million followers — with jeers and attacks on his naysayers. But the latest uproar over content apparently inciting and praising terrorism has made it a surefire bet that X will be one of the first companies to be investigated under the EU’s social media rules.

    In response to Breton’s demand, Musk asked the French commissioner to outline how X had potentially violated Europe’s content regulations. “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent,” he added. In the U.K., Michelle Donelan, the country’s digital minister, also met with social media executives Wednesday to discuss how their firms were combatting online hate speech.

    The probe is coming

    In truth, an investigation into X’s compliance with Europe’s new content rulebook has been on the cards for months. Over the summer, Breton and senior EU officials visited the company’s headquarters in San Francisco for a so-called “stress test” to see how it was complying.

    Under the EU’s legislation, tech giants like X, TikTok and Facebook must carry out lengthy risk assessments to figure out how hate speech and other illegal content can spread on their platforms. These firms must also allow greater access to external auditors, regulators and civil society groups that will track how social media companies are complying with the new oversight.

    Investigations into potential wrongdoing under Europe’s content rules will likely involve months-long inquiries into a company’s behavior, the Commission taking a legal decision on whether to levy fines or other sanctions, and a likely appeal from the firm in response. Such cases are expected to take years to complete.

    Within Brussels, the Commission has been compiling evidence of potential wrongdoing across multiple social media companies, even before the EU’s new content legislation came into full force in August, according to five officials and other individuals with direct knowledge of the matter.

    The goal is to start at least three investigations linked to the Digital Services Act by early next year, according to three of those people. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are not public and remain ongoing.

    In recent days, Commission officials have been compiling evidence associated with Hamas’ attacks on Israel — much of which has been shared on X with little, if any, pushback from the company.

    That content included verified X accounts with ties to Russia and Iran reposting graphic footage of alleged atrocities targeting Israeli soldiers. Some of these posts have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Other accounts linked to Hezbollah and ISIS have similarly posted widely with few, if any, removals.

    It is unclear whether such footage will lead to a specific investigation into X’s handling of the most recent violent content. But it has reaffirmed the likelihood Musk will soon face legal consequences for not removing such material from his social network.

    Combating violent and terrorist content requires “people sitting at a computer screen and looking at this and making judgments,” said Graham Brookie, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which has tracked the online footprint of Hamas’ ongoing attacks. “It used to be that there were dozens of people that do that at Twitter, and now there’s only a handful.”

    Steven Overly contributed reporting from Washington. This article has been updated.

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    Mark Scott

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  • Graphic videos of Hamas attacks spread on X

    Graphic videos of Hamas attacks spread on X

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    Videos and images of mass shootings, kidnapped civilians and soldiers and other violence linked with Hamas’ attack on Israel are being widely shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, in violation of the company’s own rules against inciting violence.

    POLITICO’s review of Elon Musk’s social media platform in the wake of Hamas’ attacks, which began on October 7, discovered scores of videos that allegedly showed militants murdering civilians and Israeli soldiers; viral hashtags associated with the ongoing violence that praised Hamas’ activities; and social media posts that included graphic pictures of those killed and antisemitic hate speech.

    Such extremist material was also accessible on other social media platforms, most notably on Telegram. But the level at which the terrorist-related content was circulated on X was significantly higher compared with others, according to analysis by POLITICO and two outside researchers who independently reviewed the tech companies’ response to the Middle East crisis.

    “There is a huge prevalence of extremely graphic violent material on X,” said Adam Hadley, director of Tech Against Terrorism, a nonprofit organization that works with social media platforms and governments to combat how terrorist organizations spread their propaganda online. “This doesn’t appear to be the same on other large platforms.”

    Hadley and Moustafa Ayad, executive director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that tracks online extremism, reviewed how graphic content tied to the unfolding violence spread across social media.

    A representative for X did not respond to a request for comment. The company’s internal rules say users cannot promote violent acts or share propaganda related to terrorist activities. “There is no place on X for violent and hateful entities,” the firm’s policy says.

    Under the European Union’s new social media rules, known as the Digital Services Act, large social media platforms like X also must combat the spread of hate speech — including content related to terrorist groups — or face fines of up to 6 percent of annual global revenue. Musk said X would comply with the 27-country bloc’s rules despite the billionaire’s free speech ethos and the firing of much of X’s global content moderation team.

    Yet in the days following Hamas’ widespread attacks on Israel, which have left hundreds of people dead, POLITICO easily found graphic images and videos on X in violation of both the EU and X’s separate rules.

    The content included grainy footage of militants gunning down Israeli soldiers, other social media posts of alleged Hamas fighters desecrating the bodies of victims, and videos of beheadings that, while promoted as taken from the most recent attacks, had, in fact, been reused from earlier jihadi violence in Syria.

    Hamas-related hashtags that praised the ongoing violence had also begun to trend across X despite much of this content either including graphic imagery or promoting terrorist attacks in violation of X’s own terms of service, based on POLITICO’s review of the social media platform.

    While such gruesome material is outlawed under all the tech companies’ internal policies, these firms’ executives and European regulators still find themselves in a difficult position when deciding how to respond to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

    Alongside the graphic violence shared online, people across the world have similarly taken to social media to voice their support for different sides of the conflict. Much of this content represents political speech and does not meet the threshold of promoting terrorism. With the violence spreading, tech giants’ content moderation teams and regulators must determine the fine line between what represents legitimate speech and what veers into jihadi propaganda.

    The lack of moderation tools and verification systems, particularly on X, also could lead to further offline violence — both inside and outside Israel. 

    Graham Brookie, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which tracks online misinformation, said he had already seen spikes in antisemitism and Islamophobia correlated directly to Hamas attacks in Israel. 

    “Those [social media] platforms are already trending towards more hate speech, and this is going to exacerbate that problem even more,” he said.

    Rebecca Kern contributed reporting.

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    Mark Scott

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  • Musk ousts X team curbing election disinformation

    Musk ousts X team curbing election disinformation

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    Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter) said overnight that a global team working on curbing disinformation during elections had been dismissed — a mere two days after being singled out by the EU’s digital chief as the online platform with the most falsehoods.

    Responding to reports about cuts, the tech mogul said on X, “Oh you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.”

    Several Ireland-based staff working on a threat-disruption team — including senior manager Aaron Rodericks — were allegedly fired this week, according to tech media outlet The Information. Rodericks has, however, secured a court order halting disciplinary action over allegedly liking tweets critical of the company, according to Irish media.

    Vice President Vera Jourová this week warned that EU-supported research showed that X had become the platform with the largest ratio of posts containing misinformation or disinformation. The company under Musk left the European Commission’s anti-disinformation charter in late May after failing its first test.

    Jourová also urged tech companies to prepare for numerous national and European elections in the coming months, especially given the “particularly serious” risk that Russia will seek to meddle in them. Slovakia will hold its parliamentary election on Saturday. Poland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands will also head to the polls in the coming weeks.

    X must comply with the EU’s content rules, the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires large tech platforms with over 45 million EU users to mitigate the risks of disinformation campaigns. Failure to follow the rulebook could lead to sweeping fines of up to 6 percent of companies’ global annual revenue.

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    Clothilde Goujard

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  • France, Germany pave the way to making weapons in Ukraine

    France, Germany pave the way to making weapons in Ukraine

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    PARIS — French and German defense companies are setting up local shops in Ukraine for arms maintenance — a first step toward manufacturing weapons in the country. 

    This week, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office gave the green light to a proposed joint venture between Rheinmetall, a German arms maker, and the Ukrainian Defense Industry, a Ukrainian state-owned defense group.

    France’s Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu traveled to Kyiv this week with about 20 French defense contractors — reportedly including Thales, MBDA, Nexter and Arquus — to facilitate partnerships with Ukrainian officials. 

    On Friday, the Ukrainian capital hosted the Defense Industries Forum, an arms fair attended by 165 defense companies from 26 countries.

    At the event, Ukrainian officials met directly with defense companies to sign contracts without going through Western governments, explore joint production opportunities and provide specific input about their needs on the ground in the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.

    The goal is to “boost co-production and cooperation to strengthen Ukraine and our partners,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said earlier this week. 

    The arms fair is taking place as Western armies, especially in Europe, are reaching the limit of what they can give to Ukraine from their own stocks. For the past few months, Ukraine has sought to ramp up its own arms industry, in part because U.S. elections in 2024 could mean a return of Donald Trump as president. The former leader has hinted at not providing much support to Kyiv if he wins a second term.

    As Kyiv prepares for a long war, capitals such as Paris are seeking to shift from donations to contracts and cooperation with the private sector.

    French pivot

    In the past week, French officials have started to hammer home a new message: France can no longer sustain giving weapons to Ukraine and will instead plug Ukrainian officials into the country’s defense industry.

    According to a government report, France delivered €640.5 million worth of weapons to Ukraine in 2022, including 704 missile launchers and portable anti-tank rocket launchers, 562 12.7mm machine guns, 118 missiles and missile launchers, and 60 armored fighting vehicles for free. 

    “We can’t continue to take resources from our armed forces indefinitely, otherwise we’ll be damaging our own defense capabilities and the training levels of our troops,” Lecornu told French TV Sunday.

    Ukrainian servicemen ride on a T-64 tank during a military training exercise in Kyiv region | Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

    Creating bridges between Ukrainian officials and French companies will “create long-term solidity, a more contractual relationship for ammunition and maintenance,” he told lawmakers two days later.

    In Kyiv this week, French defense contractors did ink deals with Ukraine for artillery, armored vehicles, drones and mine clearance — including for cooperation in the war-torn country.

    According to Le Figaro, French firm Arquus signed a letter of intent Thursday to ensure the maintenance of armored personnel carriers on the ground, and could install a production facility in the future. Nexter CEO Nicolas Chamussy — the manufacturer of the Caesar self-propelled howitzer — also told the French outlet it was looking for a local partner to create a joint venture for maintenance. 

    French startup Vistory will build two 3D-printing factories to make spare parts, according to La Croix.  

    Germany, Sweden and UK

    France’s shift comes on the heels of similar plans with British arms manufacturer BAE Systems and the Swedish government. 

    In August, Kyiv and Stockholm signed a statement of intent to deepen cooperation “in production, operation, training, and servicing” of the Combat Vehicle 90 (CV90) platform, manufactured by a Swedish branch of BAE Systems. A few days later, BAE Systems announced it would set up a local entity to ramp up production of 105mm light artillery guns.

    The German competition authority’s decision this week to green-light Rheinmetall’s joint venture with the Ukrainian Defense Industry — which will be based in Kyiv and operate exclusively in Ukraine — paves the way for a partnership designed to maintain and service military vehicles. It will also include “assembly, production and development of military vehicles.”

    Both parties also hope to eventually develop military systems jointly, “including for subsequent export from Ukraine.”

    Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger expressed a desire to manufacture the company’s next generation Panther tank in Ukraine — up to 400 per year. Although still a prototype, the new tank would be the successor of the company’s Leopard 2 main battle tank.

    Laura Kayali reported from Paris. Caleb Larson reported from Berlin.

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    Laura Kayali

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  • Ukraine says it killed top Russian admiral in Crimea missile attack

    Ukraine says it killed top Russian admiral in Crimea missile attack

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    The commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, died in Ukraine’s barrage on occupied Crimea last week, Kyiv said Monday.

    “After the defeat of the headquarters of the Russian armed forces, 34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian armed forces. Another 105 occupiers were wounded. The headquarters building cannot be restored,” Ukraine’s special operations forces said Monday.

    In an initial statement after the attack, the Russian defense ministry said it had shot down five incoming missiles and only one serviceman was killed, though the fleet’s headquarters were damaged.

    But rumors about Sokolov’s death circulated online and Ukraine jumped Monday at the chance to confirm the speculation. POLITICO has not independently verified the claims.

    The attack was the latest in Ukraine’s quest to liberate occupied Crimea, which Russian President Vladimir Putin seized in 2014. Two weeks ago, Ukraine wrecked a Russian submarine in the port of Sevastopol and also regained control of strategically important oil and gas drilling platforms located in the Black Sea.

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    Laura Hülsemann

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  • UK dials up fight with Meta over encryption

    UK dials up fight with Meta over encryption

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    Voiced by artificial intelligence.

    LONDON — The gloves are off in the U.K. government’s deepening spat with tech giant Meta.

    On Wednesday, Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman unveiled a fresh campaign aimed at making the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant rethink its plan to roll out end-to-end encryption on Facebook and Instagram — a move she says will hamper the police’s ability to catch pedophiles.

    At a background briefing for reporters on Tuesday, Home Office officials used graphic language to describe the types of child sexual abuse material that they say risks going undetected if Meta goes ahead with its plans. A video put together as part of the campaign features a victim of child sex abuse appealing directly to Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg to rethink plans to roll out encryption.

    The National Crime Agency has estimated that making messages on Facebook Messenger and Instagram end-to-end encrypted will wipe out more than 85 percent of the platforms’ reports of online child sexual abuse material.

    Meta, which aims to finalize the encryption rollout by the end of the year, has said it plan to continue policing its platforms for grooming and the sharing of child abuse content. It will do this by, for example, watching for suspicious behavior from accounts and providing a range of controls to help kids avoid harm.

    But Braverman said she’s not yet been convinced that these measures will make up for the shortfall in reports that the encryption changes are expected to bring about, prompting her to write to the tech giant in July asking it to stop its encryption rollout if it can’t give stronger assurances.

    “Meta has failed to provide assurances that they will keep their platforms safe from sickening abusers,” Braverman said in a press release. “They must develop appropriate safeguards to sit alongside their plans for end-to-end encryption.”

    “We don’t think people want us reading their private messages so have spent the last five years developing robust safety measures to prevent, detect and combat abuse while maintaining online security,” said a Meta spokesperson.

    The company on Wednesday also published an updated report setting out these measures, such as restricting people over 19 from messaging teens who don’t follow them and using technology to identify and take action against malicious behaviour.

    A new front in the encryption fight

    The campaign, which is also backed by a slew of child protection groups and law enforcement bodies, is just the latest round of a bruising battle between U.S. tech companies and the U.K. government over encryption that has largely centered on Britain’s new draft internet rulebook, the Online Safety Bill.

    The bill, which passed its final parliamentary hurdle Tuesday, would empower Britain’s comms regulator Ofcom to force tech companies to monitor messenger apps for illegal child abuse content. That’s proven controversial, with dozens of cryptography experts saying that the powers would effectively undermine end-to-end encryption — tech that enables only the sender and receiver to view messages.

    Tech execs like Signal’s Meredith Whittaker and WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart have suggested they’d rather have their encrypted services blocked in the U.K. than undermine privacy for millions of users on their apps. 

    But Ofcom officials have previously said there’d be a high bar for them to mandate monitoring on encrypted apps, while any order for Meta to scan its messenger apps for content would prove highly contentious for the regulator. 

    That’s what’s prompted the U.K. government to lobby for Meta to rethink its plans in the first place.

    “We urge companies looking to introduce end-to-end encryption to their services to think carefully about the impact on younger, vulnerable users,” said Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of child protection group the Internet Watch Foundation in a statement. 

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    Vincent Manancourt

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  • TikTok hit with €345M fine for violating children’s privacy

    TikTok hit with €345M fine for violating children’s privacy

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    Booming social media application TikTok needs to pay up in Europe for violating children’s privacy.

    The popular Chinese-owned app failed to protect children’s personal information by making their accounts publicly accessible by default and insufficiently tackled risks that under-13 users could access its platform, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said in a decision published Friday.

    The regulator slapped TikTok with a €345 million fine for breaching the EU’s landmark privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

    The penalty comes amid high tensions between the European Union and China, following the EU’s announcement that it plans to probe Chinese state subsidies of electric cars. European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová is also set to visit China next Monday-Tuesday and meet Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing to discuss the two sides’ technology policies, amid growing concerns over Beijing’s data gathering and cyber espionage practices.

    “Alone the fine of [€345 million] is a headline sanction to impose but reflects the extent to which the DPC identified child users were exposed to risk in particular arising from TikTok’s decision at the time to default child user accounts to public settings on registration,” said Helen Dixon, the Irish data protection commissioner, in a written statement.

    The Irish privacy regulator said that, in the period from July to December 2020, TikTok had unlawfully made accounts of users aged 13 to 17 public by default, effectively making it possible for anyone to watch and comment on videos they posted. The company also did not appropriately assess the risks that users under the age of 13 could gain access to its platform. It also found that TikTok is still pushing teenagers joining the platform to make their accounts and videos public through manipulative pop-ups. The regulator ordered the firm to change these misleading designs, known as dark patterns, within the next three months.

    Minors’ accounts could be paired up with unverified adult accounts during the second half of 2020. The authority said the video platform had also previously failed to explain to teenagers the consequences of making their content and accounts public.

    “We respectfully disagree with the decision, particularly the level of the fine imposed,” said Morgan Evans, a TikTok spokesperson. “The [Data Protection Commission]’s criticisms are focused on features and settings that were in place three years ago, and that we made changes to well before the investigation even began, such as setting all under-16 accounts to private by default.”

    TikTok added it will comply with the order to change misleading designs by extending such default-privacy settings to accounts of new users aged 16 and 17 later in September. It will also roll out in the next three months changes to the pop-up young users get when they first post a video.

    The decision marks the largest-ever privacy fine for TikTok, which is now actively used by 134 million Europeans monthly, and the fifth-largest fine imposed on any tech company under the GDPR.

    The platform popular among teenagers has previously faced criticism for insufficiently mitigating harms it poses to its young users, including deadly viral challenges and its addictive algorithm. TikTok — like 18 other online platforms — also now has to limit risks like cyberbullying or face steep fines under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

    The costly fine adds to TikTok’s woes in Europe, after it saw a wave of new restrictions on its use earlier this year due to concerns about its connection to China.

    The social media app, whose parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing, has struggled to quash concerns over its data security. The company said this month it had started moving its European data to a center within the bloc. Yet, it is still under investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission over the potentially unlawful transfer of European users’ data to China.

    The social media app, whose parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing, has struggled to quash concerns over its data security | Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images

    The Irish data authority in 2021 started probing whether TikTok was respecting children’s privacy requirements. TikTok set up its legal EU headquarters in Dublin in late 2020, meaning the Irish privacy watchdog has been the company’s supervisor for the whole bloc under the GDPR.

    Other national watchdogs weighed in on the investigation over the summer via the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), after two German privacy agencies and Italy’s regulator disagreed with Ireland’s initial findings. The group instructed Ireland to sanction TikTok for nudging its users toward public accounts in its misleading pop-ups.

    The board of European regulators also had “serious doubts” that TikTok’s measures to keep under-13 users off its platform were effective in the second half of 2020. The EDPB said the mechanisms “could be easily circumvented” and that TikTok was not checking ages “in a sufficiently systematic manner” for existing users. The group said, however, that it couldn’t find an infringement because of a lack of information available during their cooperation process.

    The United Kingdom’s data regulator in April fined TikTok £12.7 million (€14.8 million) for letting children under 13 on its platform and using their data. The company also received a €750,000 fine in 2021 from the Dutch privacy authority for failing to protect Dutch children by not having a privacy policy in their native language.

    This article has been updated.

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    Clothilde Goujard

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  • Senator Ted Cruz slams US agency for ‘collusion’ with EU on Big Tech rules

    Senator Ted Cruz slams US agency for ‘collusion’ with EU on Big Tech rules

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    U.S. Republican Senator Ted Cruz called for details on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) work with its European counterparts in a letter to FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan on Tuesday.

    The conservative Texas lawmaker criticized Khan and other FTC staff for meeting with European Commission officials to discuss incoming EU rules designed to rein in Big Tech companies, which are largely U.S.-based.

    “It is one thing for the EU to target U.S. businesses,” the letter said, but “it is altogether unthinkable that an agency of the U.S. government would actively help the EU” on its digital platform regulation.

    The FTC’s “collusion with foreign governments not only undermines U.S. sovereignty and Congress’s constitutional lawmaking authority,” Cruz’s letter said, “but also damages the competitiveness of U.S. firms and could negatively affect the savings of millions of Americans who hold stock in those companies” through pension plans.

    The letter comes just as tech giants like Meta, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok are set to have to comply with the Commission’s Digital Services Act (DSA); they face steep fines if they don’t follow the DSA’s content-moderation rules, adopted in 2022.

    The Commission also plans to label companies with core digital services — such as Apple’s App Store and Google Search — as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Market Act (DMA), which is designed to make it harder for them to abuse their market dominance. Seven companies — including the U.S.-headquartered Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft — notified their own platform services to the Commission as potential gatekeepers in July.

    The senator said that the DMA and DSA “objectively discriminate against U.S. companies” through mandatory compliance costs. In the letter, Cruz asks for detailed information on the number of FTC officials who have been “sent to Europe since June 2021,” as well as their titles and monthly expenses.

    Cruz also asked for details on the Commission’s office in San Francisco, which opened last September, and the FTC officials who have met with their EU counterparts there.

    On a visit to the EU’s California office in June, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton rejected accusations that the bloc’s digital rulebooks target U.S.-based companies, calling the idea an “urban legend” and noting that non-U.S. companies must also comply with the rules.

    It follows a similar letter from Republican U.S. Representative James Comer, who’s the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, asking that communications between the FTC and Commission on the DMA be turned over to Congress.

    Clothilde Goujard contributed reporting.

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    Edith Hancock

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  • The EU wants to cure your teen’s smartphone addiction 

    The EU wants to cure your teen’s smartphone addiction 

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    Glazed eyes. One syllable responses. The steady tinkle of beeps and buzzes coming out of a smartphone’s speakers. 

    It’s a familiar scene for parents around the world as they battle with their kids’ internet use. Just ask Věra Jourová: When her 10-year old grandson is in front of a screen “nothing around him exists any longer, not even the granny,” the transparency commissioner told a European Parliament event in June.

    Countries are now taking the first steps to rein in excessive — and potentially harmful — use of big social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

    China wants to limit screen time to 40 minutes for children aged under eight, while the U.S. state of Utah has imposed a digital curfew for minors and parental consent to use social media. France has targeted manufacturers, requiring them to install a parental control system that can be activated when their device is turned on.

    The EU has its own sweeping plans. It’s taking bold steps with its Digital Services Act (DSA) that, from the end of this month, will force the biggest online platforms — TikTok, Facebook, Youtube — to open up their systems to scrutiny by the European Commission and prove that they’re doing their best to make sure their products aren’t harming kids.

    The penalty for non-compliance? A hefty fine of up to six percent of companies’ global annual revenue.

    Screen-sick 

    The exact link between social media use and teen mental health is debated. 

    These digital giants make their money from catching your attention and holding on to it as long as possible, raking in advertisers’ dollars in the process. And they’re pros at it: endless scrolling combined with the periodic, but unpredictable, feedback from likes or notifications, dole out hits of stimulation that mimic the effect of slot machines on our brains’ wiring.  

    It’s a craving that’s hard enough for adults to manage (just ask a journalist). The worry is that for vulnerable young people, that pull comes with very real, and negative, consequences: anxiety, depression, body image issues, and poor concentration. 

    Large mental health surveys in the U.S. — where the data is most abundant — have found a noticeable increase over the last 15 years in adolescent unhappiness, a tendency that continued through the pandemic.

    These increases cut across a number of measures: suicidal thoughts, depression, but also more mundanely, difficulties sleeping. This trend is most pronounced among teenage girls. 

    Smartphone use has exploded, with more people getting one at a younger age | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    At the same time smartphone use has exploded, with more people getting one at a younger age. Social media use, measured as the number of times a given platform is accessed per day, is also way up. 

    There are some big caveats. The trend is most visible in the Anglophone world, although it’s also observable elsewhere in Europe. And there’s a whole range of confounding factors. Waning stigma around mental health might mean that young people are more comfortable describing what they’re going through in surveys. Changing political and socio-economic factors, as well as worries about climate change, almost certainly play a role. 

    Researchers on all sides of the debate agree that technology factors into it, but also that it doesn’t fully explain the trend. They diverge on where to put the emphasis. 

    Luca Braghieri, an assistant professor of economics at Bocconi university in Italy, said he originally thought concerns over Facebook were overblown, but he’s changed his mind after starting to research the topic (and has since deleted his Facebook account). 

    Braghieri and his colleagues combed through U.S. college mental health surveys from 2004-2006, the period when Facebook was first rolled-out in U.S. colleges, and before it was available to the general public. He found that in colleges where Facebook was introduced, students’ mental health dipped in a way not seen in universities where it hadn’t yet launched.

    Braghieri said the comparison with colleges where Facebook hadn’t yet arrived allowed the researchers to rule out unidentified other variables that might have been simultaneous. 

    Faced with mounting pressure in the last years, platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have introduced various tools to assuage concerns, including parental control | Staff/AFP via Getty Images

    Elia Abi-Jaoude, a psychiatrist and academic at the University of Toronto, said he observed the effect first-hand when working at a child and adolescent psychiatric in-patient unit starting in 2015.

    “I was basically on the front lines, witnessing the dramatic rise in struggles among adolescents,” said Abi-Jaoude, who has also published research on the topic. He noticed “all sorts of affective complaints, depression, anxiety — but for them to make it to the inpatient setting — we’re talking suicidality. And it was very striking to see.”  

    His biggest concern? Sleep deprivation — and the mood swings and worse school performance that accompany it. “I think a lot of our population is chronically sleep deprived,” said Abi-Jaoude, pointing the finger at smartphones and social media use.

    The flipside    

    New technologies have gotten caught up in panics before. Looking back, they now seem quaint, even funny.   

    “In the 1940s, there were concerns about radio addiction and children. In the 1960s it was television addiction. Now we have phone addiction. So I think the question is: Is now different? And if so, how?” asks Amy Orben, from the U.K. Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge.  

    She doesn’t dismiss the possible harms of social media, but she argues for a nuanced approach. That means honing in on the specific people who are most vulnerable, and the specific platforms and features that might be most risky. 

    Another major ask: more data.  

    There’s a “real disconnect” between the general belief and the actual evidence that social media use is harmful, said Orben, who went on to praise the new EU’s rules. Among its various provisions, the new EU rules will allow researchers for the first time to get their hands on data usually buried deep inside company servers.   

    Orben said that while much attention has gone into the negative effects of digital media use at the expense of positive examples, research she conducted into adolescent well-being during pandemic lockdowns, for example, showed that teens with access to laptops were happier than those without. 

    But when it comes to risk of harm to kids, Europe has taken a precautionary approach.

    “Not all kids will experience harm due to these risks from smartphones and social media use,” Patti Valkenburg, head of the Center for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media at the University of Amsterdam, told a Commission event in June. “But for minors, we need to adopt the precautionary principle. The fact that harm can be caused should be enough to justify measures to prevent or mitigate potential risk.”

    Parental controls  

    Faced with mounting pressure in the past years, platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have introduced various tools to assuage concerns, including parental control. Since 2021, YouTube and Instagram send teenagers using their platform reminders to take breaks. TikTok in March announced minors have to enter a passcode after an hour on the app to continue watching videos. 

    Very large online platforms will also be banned from tracking kids’ online activity to show them personalized advertisements | Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images

    But the social media companies will soon have to go further.  

    By the end of August, very large online platforms with over 45 million users in the European Union — including companies like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube — will have to comply with the longest list of rules. 

    They will have to hand in to the Digital Services Act watchdog — the European Commission — their first yearly assessment of the major impact of their design, algorithms, advertising and terms of services on a range of societal issues such as the protection of minors and mental wellbeing. They will then have to propose and implement concrete measures under the scrutiny of an audit company, the Commission and vetted researchers.

    Measures could include ensuring that algorithms don’t recommend videos about dieting to teenage girls or turning off autoplay by default so that minors don’t stay hooked watching content.

    Platforms will also be banned from tracking kids’ online activity to show them personalized advertisements. Manipulative designs such as never-ending timelines to glue users to platforms have been connected to addictive behavior, and will be off limits for tech companies. 

    Brussels is also working with tech companies, industry associations and children’s groups on rules for how to design platforms in a way that protects minors. The Code of Conduct on Age Appropriate Design planned for 2024 would then provide an explicit list of measures that the European Commission wants to see large social media companies carry out to comply with the new law.

    Yet, the EU’s new content law won’t be the magic wand parents might be looking for. The content rulebook doesn’t apply to popular entertainment like online games, messaging apps nor the digital devices themselves. 

    It remains unclear how the European Commission will potentially investigate and go after social media companies if they consider that they have failed to limit their platforms’ negative consequences for mental well-being. External auditors and researchers could also face obstacles to wade through troves of data and lines of code to find smoking guns and challenge tech companies’ claims. 

    How much companies are willing to run up against their business model in the service of their users’ mental health is also an open question, said John Albert, a policy expert at the tech-focused advocacy group AlgorithmWatch. Tech giants have made a serious effort at fighting the most egregious abuses, like cyber-bullying, or eating disorders, Albert said. And the level of transparency made possible by the new rules was unprecedented.

    “But when it comes to much broader questions about mental health and how these algorithmic recommender systems interact with users and affect them over time… I don’t know what we should expect them to change,” he explained. The back-and-forth vetting process is likely going to be drawn out as the Commission comes to grips with the complex platforms.

    “In the short term, at least, I would expect some kind of business as usual.”

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    Carlo Martuscelli and Clothilde Goujard

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  • Is Crowdfunding Still Viable In Today’s Market?

    Is Crowdfunding Still Viable In Today’s Market?

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    At the beginning of August, CrowdStreet CEO Tore Steen stepped down amid fire after more than $50 million went missing, as reported in Bisnow. The funds had been raised for deals in Atlanta and Miami by New York real estate firm Nightingale Properties, and they never closed. Both the Atlanta and Miami entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, per Bisnow.

    The recent events raise questions over whether sponsors should consider raising money through crowdsourcing platforms such as CrowdStreet. When evaluating the options, it’s important to note that there are different structures, and some cater to accredited investors while others accept non-accredited investors. The way funds are raised on platforms can vary too. While certain crowdfunding sites enable sponsors to have direct contact with investors, others keep the relationship anonymous.

    Looking at the bigger picture, crowdfunding has been on the rise in recent years. Leading platforms have raised significant amounts. CrowdStreet, for instance, has funded more than 750 deals with over $4 billion invested.

    Given the recent events, however, it’s important to note that clearly, there will be some challenges ahead as investors grow concerned over the legitimacy of these tools. Sponsors may want to make sure that the funding of their deal is not fully reliant on a crowdfunding raise. It’s also more crucial than ever to carry out due diligence before making an investment.

    A starting point could be to check if the platform is open to accredited investors or non-accredited investors. In this article, we’ll look at the difference between these categories, and consider how crowdfunding has opened avenues for non-accredited investors. In the following article, we’ll cover crowdsourcing options for accredited investors.

    Accredited and Non-Accredited Investors

    Historically, real estate investments have often been limited to accredited investors. To qualify as an accredited investor, certain criteria must be met. This consists of having a net worth of more than $1 million excluding the primary residence, or an income of more than $200,000 individually or $300,000 as a couple during each of the past two years with an expectation to continue with the same salary in the current year, according to the SEC.

    In recent years, crowdfunding has changed this concept, with some platforms opening the gates to larger pools of investors who are non-accredited. These individuals will have a net worth of less than $1 million excluding their home and earn an income of less than $200,000 as an individual or $300,000 as a couple during the previous two years.

    The SEC has certain investing guidelines for non-accredited investors. If their annual income or net worth is less than $107,000, the investment limit is either $2,200 or 5% of their annual income or net worth, whichever is greater. If both the annual income and net worth are $107,000 or more, the limit is the greater of 10% of their annual income or net worth, up to $107,000.

    Crowdfunding for Non-Accredited Investors

    Some of the well-known platforms for non-accredited investors include RealtyMogul, Yieldstreet, and DiversyFund, and Fundrise, as mentioned in Nerd Wallet. Other options are GROUNDFLOOR, Roofstock, and Small Change. These sites are always changing, so you’ll want to check the latest updates and reviews before moving forward with an investment.

    When I interviewed Jamison Manwaring on my podcast, “The Insider’s Edge to Real Estate Investing,” he shared his passion to give opportunities to a broader audience. Jamison is the co-founder and CEO of Neighborhood Ventures, a crowdfunding platform which is open to non-accredited investors with starting amounts as low as $1,000 for multifamily.

    In addition to navigating the ample regulation in crowdfunding, Jamison noted the importance of educating investors and developing trust. “It doesn’t matter if the check is $1,000 or $1 million—people look at it the same,” he said. When breaking into crowdfunding, he and his partner agreed to try raising $500,000 that they needed for a deal via online, rather than tapping friends. Through the process, they learned that investors were looking for consistent returns and structured the plan accordingly. “In four weeks we funded the whole project,” he explained.

    The Intricacies of a Crowdfunding App

    Janine Yorio, the CEO of Everyrealm who served as the head of real estate at Republic, joined my podcast to discuss her experience and background in the crowdfunding space. Republic enables non-accredited investors to participate with venture capitalists for as little as $50. Prior to her time there, Janine spent years building and running a fintech app called Compound which was acquired by Republic in 2020.

    On the show, Janine discussed the significant upfront investment needed to build the app and get approval for it. During this time, she and her partner carried out marketing efforts to inform investors of their options. Once the app was in place, individuals jumped at the chance to contribute as little as $100. More than 4,000 participated in the first investment, and $450,000 was raised through the app. “We never talked to people on the phone,” Janine shared on my podcast. “It was all through the app and fully automated.”

    Janine’s crowdfunding app was used for projects in places like Miami, Nashville and Austin, with an eye for locations that were booming. “We wanted to make it so you could invest passively in a downtown urban core,” she shared. “Real estate is the world’s largest asset class…the more we can increase the ownership and improve what that looks like, the more people can invest and play alongside the big players.”

    Ultimately, those who want to use crowdfunding to raise funds could find opportunities, though investor demand may drop given the recent fallout. In addition, there are many legal complexities to follow, and you’ll need an attorney to help you sort through them. New investors may be well suited to begin with a partner who has access to other sources of funding while building a track record.

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    James Nelson, Contributor

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  • TikTok to face European privacy fine by September

    TikTok to face European privacy fine by September

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    TikTok is set to face a privacy fine by early September for its handling of teenagers’ and children’s data, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

    Europe’s network of national privacy regulators, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), on Wednesday resolved disagreements among agencies in an investigation into the popular video-sharing platform used by 125 million people in the bloc.

    Their decision kicks off a process giving TikTok’s lead privacy regulator in the EU, the Irish Data Protection Commission, a month to issue the final penalty and any potential measures. The size and details of the fine are unknown.

    The Irish data authority in 2021 started probing whether TikTok was respecting children’s privacy under the requirements of the EU’s landmark privacy rulebook, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

    The Irish regulator wanted to check whether the Chinese-owned app ensured its default settings sufficiently protected children’s privacy and if the company was transparent enough in how it processed minors’ data. One of the trickiest points has also been TikTok’s age-verification practices, intended to keep minors under 13 off its platform. TikTok is supervised by the Irish Data Protection Commission because its EU headquarters are in the country.

    The Irish DPC sent the case to the EDPB in May following disagreements with its German and Italian counterparts.

    “We’ve yet to receive the final decision so we’re not in a position to comment,” said a TikTok spokesperson.

    TikTok in 2021 received a €750,000 fine from the Dutch data protection authority for failing to protect Dutch children’s privacy by not having a privacy policy in their native language. The company is also being investigated by Ireland over the potentially unlawful shipping of European users’ data to China.

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    Clothilde Goujard

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  • Chinese embassy slams Moscow over Russian border incident

    Chinese embassy slams Moscow over Russian border incident

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    The Chinese embassy in Moscow on Friday criticized “brutal and excessive law enforcement by Russia” after five Chinese citizens were denied entry into the country.

    In a post on Chinese social media platform WeChat, the embassy said the incident had “seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens.”

    On attempting to enter Russia on July 29, the group of Chinese citizens was “repeatedly” questioned for “up to 4 hours,” according to the statement. They had their tourist visas canceled and were refused entry, it said.

    The incident is “inconsistent with the overall situation of friendly Sino-Russian relations and the trend of increasingly close friendly exchanges of personnel between the two countries,” added the embassy. “The Russian side is required to immediately find out the cause of the incident, take active measures to eliminate the bad influence, and ensure that similar incidents will not recur in the future.”

    Beijing committed to a “no-limits partnership” with Moscow just two days before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It is among the Kremlin’s top remaining allies, and has not condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion.

    Representatives of the Chinese government this weekend are joining more than 40 countries in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for Saudi-hosted — and Kremlin-free — Ukraine peace talks.

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    Leonie Cater

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  • Twitter to ditch bird logo, Musk says

    Twitter to ditch bird logo, Musk says

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    Twitter is set for a rebrand, if its owner Elon Musk is to be believed.

    “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk wrote in a tweet early Sunday.

    The change might come as soon as Monday. In a follow-up tweet, Musk said: “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make [it] go live worldwide tomorrow.”

    “It should have been done a long time ago,” Musk said in a Twitter Spaces audio chat, according to a Reuters report.

    The X probably refers to Twitter’s business name X Corp. Musk also posted a tweet of a flickering X.

    The rebrand is the latest change to Twitter by Musk since he acquired the company in October 2022 for $44 billion. Since taking over, Musk has made big changes to how Twitter works and has laid off large parts of the company’s staff.

    In early July, Musk imposed stricter limits on the number of tweets Twitter users can view in a day. Under the new restrictions, verified accounts are limited to reading 6,000 posts per day, unverified accounts to 600 posts per day and new unverified accounts to 300 posts per day.

    A new Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino, took over the role from Musk last month. Upon her appointment, Musk said Yaccarino would “focus primarily on business operations,” while he would stay focused on “product design and technology.”

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    Varg Folkman

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  • Putin’s media machine turns on ‘traitor’ Prigozhin

    Putin’s media machine turns on ‘traitor’ Prigozhin

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    From national hero to drug-addled, bewigged zero: the Kremlin’s propaganda machine has turned against Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

    In a sensational report on state-run Rossiya-1’s “60 Minutes” program on Wednesday evening, the Kremlin’s propaganda attack dogs played footage of what they claimed was a raid of Prigozhin’s mansion and offices, showing cash, guns, drugs, a helicopter, multiple (Russian) passports — and a closet full of terrible wigs.

    “The investigation is continuing,” said pundit Eduard Petrov at the top of the program, referring to the probe into the mutiny led by Prigozhin last month, during which the leader of the Wagner Group of mercenaries marched his men to within 200 kilometers of Moscow in a bid to oust the country’s military leadership. “In reality, no one planned to close this case,” he added.

    It was an open declaration of war on Prigozhin, and came after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides issued improbable assurances that the criminal case into those who had organized the mutiny would be dropped if the warlord and his Wagnerites agreed to either disarm, sign contracts with the Russian defense ministry, or leave for Belarus. On Thursday morning, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who ostensibly negotiated the exile agreement with Prigozhin and Putin, told state media the warlord was not in the country.

    “We need to figure out who was on whose side,” Petrov pronounced on “60 Minutes.” “Who was on the mutineers’ side? They should be punished and brought to criminal justice. So the nation understands that if a person acts against their government, they will be punished very, very harshly. Not ‘see you later, I’m going out.’”

    “Tomes” of evidence is being combed over by Russian authorities, a gloating Petrov told the audience of the evening show. “Very soon, very very soon, we will hear what stage the criminal case is at.”

    Cue: Footage — obtained from unnamed siloviki (a term used to describe members of the military or security services) — of Russia’s special forces raiding what Petrov described as Prigozhin’s “nest” — aka the offices of his now-shuttered Patriot Media company, and his palatial home.

    “I believe the image of Yevgeny Prigozhin as a champion of the people was entirely created by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s well-fed media empire,” Petrov said contemptuously and seemingly unironically — never mind that Rossiya-1 itself portrayed Prigozhin as a hero mere weeks ago.

    Remaking a murder

    Until recently, the Kremlin’s propagandists painted Prigozhin, a 62-year-old one-time caterer and convicted felon, as a macho hero, a Russian Rambo decapitating traitors with sledgehammers on the front line.

    Things got complicated when Prigozhin began publicly railing against Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, ranting and raging to his growing cadre of devoted fans on social media.

    Still, Prigozhin never criticized Putin, and Putin allowed Prigozhin to continue building his brand, so long as his men kept holding down the fort in the most brutal battles in the war on Ukraine. Then Prigozhin crossed the line by marching his men on Moscow.

    Putin’s retribution was always going to be brutal — first, though, he’s destroying Prigozhin’s image and undermining his reputation.

    Back to Wednesday night’s “60 Minutes.”

    “Why did we forget about Prigozhin’s past?” an impassioned Petrov asked. “Everyone knew about it. Everyone talked about it. Spoke about the fact that he has been on trial twice. His criminal past.”

    Showing footage of what he said was Prigozhin’s 600 million ruble (€6 million) mansion, Petrov crowed: “Let’s see how this champion of the truth lived — a twice-convicted champion — a champion who spoke about how everyone around him is stealing.

    “Inside Yevgeny Prigozhin’s little house there’s currency lying around like this, in a box, held together by rubber bands,” Petrov continued. “Now let’s see the palace of the fighter of corruption and criminality, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Here’s his palace. Here’s his house. His daughter sometimes posts videos from here, by the way — and she’s not always in good condition.”

    Then, the pièce de résistance of the video: a closet full of bad wigs.

    “Oh!” exclaimed Petrov as the footage rolled. “This is a closet full of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s secrets — wigs! Why does he need wigs at his house?”

    It wasn’t long until Telegram, the social media platform popular among Russians, was flooded with photos of Prigozhin in a variety of wigs and disguises. (Though intriguingly, the photos appeared to come from a Prigozhin-friendly account called “Release the Kraken,” which said it had sourced them from the Patriot Media archive.)

    The program also aired footage of what Petrov speculated were drugs found in Prigozhin’s mansion. A Prigozhin-friendly Telegram account which has previously featured voice messages from the warlord himself denied the house in the video belonged to Prigozhin, and claimed the “drugs” were actually laundry detergent.

    Divide and conquer

    Wednesday night’s program was also designed to reassure Russians that not all Wagner fighters were traitors and mutineers — with his war effort stuttering, Putin can’t afford to lose tens of thousands of men from the front.

    “There were worthy people in Wagner,” Petrov insisted — moments after a diatribe about Prigozhin recruiting some of Russia’s worst criminals into the mercenary army’s ranks.

    “The majority!” cut in “60 Minutes” host Yevgeny Popov. “The majority of people acted heroically, took cities, served in good faith … and bought their freedom with blood.”

    “What’s absolutely clear: Prigozhin is a traitor,” Popov continued. “But Wagnerites — the majority of them are heroic people who with guns in hand defended our motherland. And many of them were lied to.”

    Referring to Prigozhin’s Concord catering company and other businesses that Putin admitted were fully funded by the Russian state, Popov said the warlord had received “billions in contracts.”

    And seeking to cleave Prigozhin’s men from their exiled boss, Petrov said: “The question is whether this money reached the fighters and heroes of Wagner!”

    Translation: Watch your back, Yevgeny.

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    Zoya Sheftalovich

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  • Why Putin should worry his propaganda machine broke down

    Why Putin should worry his propaganda machine broke down

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    Vladimir Putin had an iron grip on Russians’ views of the world. Then Yevgeny Prigozhin ripped that facade apart. 

    In the aftermath of the Wagner Group boss’ aborted uprising, Putin and his propagandists — national broadcasters, high-profile politicians and social media influencers — have struggled to explain how Prigozhin, an archetypal Russian hero, suddenly turned into the country’s most infamous traitor. 

    Five Western security officials, almost all of whom spoke privately to discuss sensitive matters, told POLITICO Putin was still fundamentally in control even though the mutiny had significantly tested his authority. 

    But the Russian leader’s inability to dominate public perceptions of what happened over the last week highlighted a potential fragility within his leadership, according to two of these officials. Putin and his propagandists failed to react quickly when Prigozhin launched his dramatic insurrection and in the subsequent days, their messaging veered from deafening silence to claims that it was all a Western plot. 

    “It’s certainly one of the most challenging, or even the most challenging, situation that Putin has faced,” said Jakub Kalenský, a deputy director at the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, a joint NATO-EU organization tracking state-backed influence campaigns. “It will also be a challenge in the information space. Prigozhin himself controlled quite a significant part of his propaganda machine,” he added. “Now, we have different branches of the propaganda machine controlled by different people.”

    As Wagner troops sped toward Moscow last weekend, state-owned media outlets — where three-quarters of Russians still get the majority of their news — initially downplayed the mutiny. One even broadcast a documentary on Silvio Berlusconi, the now-deceased Italian leader, as the uprising unfolded.

    At the same time, influential users of Telegram, the social media platform favored by Russian speakers, were divided on how to portray the events. A vocal minority — some with hundreds of thousands of followers — sided with Prigozhin’s criticism of Russia’s military leaders, though made it clear they were not attacking Putin. 

    And once the crisis was over, with the Wagner boss on his way to exile in Belarus, Kremlin-backed broadcasters attempted to shoehorn the rebellion into age-old narratives that any attack on Russia must be tied to Western aggression. 

    Prigozhin himself was a key figure in Putin’s propaganda machine. His own Telegram followers number almost 1.4 million people. Groups associated with the mercenary leader remain a linchpin in Russia’s global online influence campaigns, while American authorities have connected him to interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 

    Prigozhin’s status as the archetypal strongman made it hard for the Kremlin to accuse him of being a traitor to Russia.

    On Telegram, where influencers focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have become national celebrities, once active groups became eerily quiet as users struggled to decipher who was going to win, according to Eto Buziashvili, a research associate at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, who tracks Russian-speaking social media.

    Many of these high-profile Telegram channels have been vocally critical of Russian military leaders during the invasion of Ukraine, and routinely backed Prigozhin’s criticism of how the war has been waged. 

    Prigozhin himself was a key figure in Putin’s propaganda machine | Pool photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/AFP via Getty Images

    Yet once the mercenary leader’s march on Moscow fizzled out, many of these social media users did not openly attack Prigozhin, and instead called for peace between Russians — while continuing their criticism of the Kremlin’s military strategy in Ukraine. Russian-language Telegram accounts urged Wagner Group forces and the Russian military not to resort to outright civil war. “Everybody basically said ‘let’s just not do this,” Buziashvili added.

    In the days following the failed insurrection, national media has shifted gears to call for unity, while portraying Putin in everyday events — including, on Thursday, at a local textile conference — to show the country had moved on. The state’s international broadcasters, which have deployed a more aggressive disinformation playbook, also quickly tried to link the aborted mutiny to NATO.

    For Bret Schafer, head of the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s information manipulation team, the confused response to Prigozhin’s rebellion is reminiscent of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. 

    In February 2022, the Kremlin’s disinformation industry was also caught off guard — mostly because Putin had categorically disavowed military action, even hours before his troops invaded. Russian influence operations are often developed over months, if not years, and struggle to shift into new narratives when required to do so almost overnight. 

    “Russia does well in propaganda campaigns because they have so many tentacles,” said Schafer. “But it doesn’t respond particularly well in moments of confusion where there’s a lack of clarity of what’s going on.”

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    Mark Scott

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  • As France burns, Macron blames social media for fanning the flames

    As France burns, Macron blames social media for fanning the flames

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    PARIS — French rioters have set the country on fire and Emmanuel Macron is pointing the finger at TikTok and Snapchat for pouring gasoline on the inferno.

    In the past three days, violent protests erupted across France after a police officer in a Paris suburb shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel M., who was of North African descent. Rioters targeted public buildings, transport systems and shops with projectiles and Molotov cocktails, leaving 249 members of law enforcement injured and 875 people arrested. 

    Unlike the deadly outbreak of violence in 2005, the turmoil — which has led to public transportation shutdowns, concert cancelations and armored vehicles being deployed across the country — can be documented in real time, shared online and seen by tens of thousands on social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter. 

    That online phenomenon is worrying France’s political leaders, who have been scurrying to find solutions as the unrest shows no sign of fizzling out.

    “We’ve seen violent gatherings organized on several [social media platforms] — but also a kind of mimicry of violence,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday after a government crisis meeting. He accused younger rioters of exiting reality and “living the video games that have intoxicated them.”

    The French president wants tech companies to delete violent content and provide law enforcement with the identity of protesters who use social media to stoke — and exacerbate — the disorder. “I expect these platforms to be responsible,” he said. 

    According to research by France’s most-watched news channel BFM, TikTok and Snapchat were flooded Friday morning with videos from the rioting and looting across France. On TikTok, hashtags linked to the riots were pushed by the platform’s algorithm. Police officials also told BFM some protesters coordinate and communicate in real time through messaging services on WhatsApp and Telegram via online tools that did not exist in 2005, when riots left hundreds of public buildings damaged and thousands of cars burned.

    The government is scheduled to meet with social media platforms Friday evening, where company executives will be pressed to cooperate.

    Some, however, say social media platforms are unfairly blamed by grandstanding politicians who should focus their attention elsewhere.

    On Friday, the U.N.’s human rights office weighed in, saying France needs to address “issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement,” referring to the killing of the teenager.

    Tech has long been used to coordinate demonstrations and protests, political communications expert Philippe Moreau Chevrolet told POLITICO, adding that the government would be “terribly out of touch” to respond to the crisis by focusing on tech companies and video games.

    “Text messages used to be accused [of facilitating riots], now it’s social networks. Yellow Vests protests were blamed on Facebook,” Moreau Chevrolet said.

    Two sides of the coin

    But the role of online platforms goes beyond showcasing fires and looting, and helping rioters get organized. This week’s violent unrest began with a video that was, of course, posted on social media.

    “There’s clearly been a change, with more and more people adopting the reflex of filming the police. Above all, the activists’ community is now able to quickly and widely circulate the videos,” said Magda Boutros, a sociology scholar at the University of Washington who studied activism against police violence in France.

    When a police officer shot and killed Nahel M. (the name by which he has been identified publicly) on Tuesday, media reports originally relied on law enforcement sources claiming a driver threatened the police officer’s life. But a video, filmed by a bystander and posted on Twitter, showed a different story: Two cops stood next to a car and one shot the driver at close range.

    Another recent incident (crucially, not filmed) showed the power of social media to hold violent police officers accountable and the ability to set a country on fire — or not.

    Two weeks ago, a teenager died in similar circumstances as Nahel M. in the Charente region of western France. The young man was reportedly shot dead by a police officer for refusing to comply.

    That went relatively unnoticed, explained former French MP Thomas Mesnier, because Charente is in a more remote area compared to the dense banlieues of the French capital.

    It also went unnoticed, Mesnier said, because “there was no video that went viral on social networks, participating in and reinforcing people’s emotions and sense of dread.”

    Elisa Bertholomey contributed reporting.

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    POLITICO Europe

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  • Greece’s conservatives win election majority to secure second term

    Greece’s conservatives win election majority to secure second term

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    ATHENS — Greece’s conservatives won big on Sunday’s parliamentary elections, securing an outright majority. Far-right parties also made gains, while the left struggled, giving Greece’s parliament its most rightward slant since the restoration of democracy in 1974.

    The New Democracy party of Kyriakos Mitsotakis managed to widen its double-digit lead over its main rival, the left-wing Syriza party, and secured 158 seats in the country’s 300-seat parliament, under the new electoral system which awards the winning party 50 bonus seats.

    “Our goals are high and must be high in a second term that can transform Greece with dynamic growth rates that will raise wages and reduce inequalities,” Mitsotakis said in his first message from his party’s headquarters.

    “People gave us a safe majority. The major reforms will therefore proceed with speed as this is the choice of the Greek people and I will honor it in full.”

    Sunday’s elections were the second held in the country in five weeks, after New Democracy came first on May 21 but fell short of an outright majority.

    New Democracy got 40.5 percent of the vote on Sunday, while Syriza was lagging with only 17.8 percent and 47 seats, according to official results. The socialist PASOK party had 11.9 percent and 32 seats, and the communists KKE had 7.6 percent and 20 seats. The participation rate was at 52.7 percent, the Interior Ministry reported.

    Far-right gains

    Four fringe parties — mainly from the far-right — also managed to top the 3 percent threshold to make it into parliament.

    Last-minute contender the Spartans party — which recently added a jailed MP from the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, Ilias Kasidiaris, to its list of backers — saw its support rise to 4.7 percent within days and secured 13 seats in parliament. The conservative government had passed an amendment aiming to ban him from parliament.

    New Democracy’s dominance is another sign of how Southern European countries are moving to the right, after a decades-long financial crisis in the eurozone that led the rise of left-wing parties.

    Ultra-nationalist, pro-Russian Greek Solution got 4.5 percent and 12 seats, while anti-abortion, religious party Niki got 3.7 percent and 10 MPs. To the left, Course of Freedom, led by former member of Syriza Zoi Konstantopoulou, got 3.1 percent and 8 seats.

    The far right has performed well in recent elections in Finland and Spain, and is polling particularly well in Germany. Its savvier elements — like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — are beginning to assert themselves at the European level.

    But the main story of Sunday’s election was New Democracy’s dominance, which is another sign of how Southern European countries are moving to the right, after a decades-long financial crisis in the eurozone that led to the rise of left-wing parties.

    “This is a clear victory for Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for [New Democracy] and for the EPP,” said Thanasis Bakolas, the center-right European People’s Party secretary general.

    “In politics, what you stand for matters. This is what we see in Greece, also what we saw earlier this year in national elections in Finland and regional elections in Spain. And this is precisely what we will see again in upcoming parliamentary elections in Spain in July and Poland in October. EPP parties are dominating the centre, while the centre-left is barricaded to its fringes.”

    The election outcome is considered market-friendly and puts Greece firmly on track to regain an investment-grade rating towards the end of the year, analysts say.

    Mitsotakis has promised that his first two bills will include a further reform of the public administration and the economy. He has also promised overhauls in the judicial, health and education sectors and expressed his intention to create a family ministry to help address Greece’s shrinking, and ageing, population.

    “The resounding victory will provide ND with a comfortable majority, putting Mitsotakis in a good position to push through investor-friendly reforms,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-founder of risk analysis company Teneo.

    But the fringe parties will have a platform to broadcast their populist message and attempt to disrupt the government’s agenda, exploiting politically toxic issues like migration, the relationship with Turkey, abortion, the role of religion in education, Russia sanctions, he added.

    “It remains to be seen how Mitsotakis — often perceived to be more vulnerable to attacks from the far-right given his distinct liberal, center-right orientation — will manage to deal with the possible challenge posed by far-right opposition lawmakers.”

    Main opposition Syriza performed very poorly, raising questions about whether its status as the main opposition could now be challenged by Pasok party. It also means that conservatives could govern without particular scrutiny.

    “Although the danger of collapse was avoided and Syriza remains the official opposition, we have suffered a serious electoral defeat,” the party’s leader Alexis Tsipras said, setting the European elections next year as a goal for the party’s reimposition and adding that he will put his leadership to the judgment of the party members.

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    Nektaria Stamouli

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  • EU to Zuckerberg: Explain yourself over Instagram pedophile network

    EU to Zuckerberg: Explain yourself over Instagram pedophile network

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    EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton wants Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to explain and take “immediate” action over a recently exposed large pedophile network on Instagram.

    Instagram has been letting a vast network of accounts promoting and purchasing child sexual abuse material flourish on its platform, according to investigations by the Wall Street Journal and researchers released on June 7. The social media platform lets users search for explicit hashtags, and has offenders exploit its recommendation algorithms to promote illicit content.

    “Meta’s voluntary code on child protection seems not to work,” Breton wrote Thursday on Twitter. “Mark Zuckerberg must now explain & take immediate action.”

    Breton said he will discuss the issue with Zuckerberg at the Meta headquarters on June 23 during a trip to the U.S. The politician will travel later this month to see how social media companies including Twitter are preparing to comply with the EU’s flagship content moderation law, the Digital Services Act (DSA).

    He said Meta will have to “demonstrate measures” to the European Commission after August 25 when the DSA starts applying to Big Tech platforms. Otherwise, the company could face sweeping fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual revenue. Under the DSA, platforms have to crack down on illegal content and ensure children are safe on a platform. Companies have to also assess and limit how their platforms and algorithms are contributing to major societal problems such as the dissemination of illegal content and the protection of minors.

    A Meta spokesperson said the company has set up an internal task force to investigate and “immediately address” the recent findings from the Wall Street Journal and researchers.

    The company works “aggressively to fight” child exploitation and support law enforcement track down criminals, the spokesperson said. Meta dismantled 27 “abusive networks” between 2020 and 2022 and disabled over 490,000 accounts for violating our child safety policies in January 2023, they added.

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    Clothilde Goujard

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  • EU’s Breton says Twitter ‘can’t hide’ after platform ditches disinformation code

    EU’s Breton says Twitter ‘can’t hide’ after platform ditches disinformation code

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    Twitter has abandoned the EU’s code of practice on disinformation, Thierry Breton said late Friday, but Europe’s internal markets commissioner insisted that “obligations remain” for the social networking giant.

    “You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton said in a tweet, after confirming that the platform owned by Elon Musk had left the bloc’s disinformation code, which other major social media platforms have pledged to support.

    “Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation under DSA as of August 25,” Breton said, referring to the Digital Services Act — new social media rules that include fines of up to 6 percent of a company’s annual revenue.

    “Our teams will be ready for enforcement,” the commissioner said.

    The code of practice on disinformation is a voluntary rulebook that includes obligations for platforms to track political advertising, stop the monetization of disinformation, and provide greater access to outsiders. Participation in the code is designed to help offset some of these companies’ obligations within the separate and mandatory DSA.

    Twitter is one of eight social media platforms that fall under the scope of the DSA. The others are Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat.

    Breton has publicly vowed that he would personally hold Musk to account for complying with the EU’s content rules.

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    Jones Hayden

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  • Blocked! French minister threatens to ban Twitter if it doesn’t follow EU rules

    Blocked! French minister threatens to ban Twitter if it doesn’t follow EU rules

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    France’s Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot waded into a growing tussle between the European Union and Elon Musk’s Twitter on Monday, as he threatened the social media platform’s access to the bloc.

    In comments made on radio network France Info, the minister said that the U.S. company would be banned from the EU if it refused to follow the incoming European Digital Services Act, which goes into effect throughout the EU at the end of August.

    “Disinformation is one of the gravest threats weighing on our democracies,” said Barrot. “Twitter, if it repeatedly doesn’t follow our rules, will be banned from the EU,” the French minister added.

    The remarks mark an escalation of an ongoing fight between European politicians and Twitter, which was bought last year by Elon Musk, the controversial billionaire who also controls Tesla and SpaceX.

    Last week, POLITICO reported that the social media platform was withdrawing from the EU’s voluntary disinformation code of practice.

    The code spells out obligations for large digital platforms on tracking political advertising, clamping down on disinformation, and encouraging wider access and participation to outsiders. Other major social media platforms have pledged to support the rulebook, which is meant to pre-empt some of the measures that will become mandatory under the incoming Digital Services Act. The regulation foresees fines worth up to 6 percent of a company’s annual revenue for rule-breakers.

    Internal Markets Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted “You can run but you can’t hide” in response to Twitter’s decision to withdraw from the code.

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    Carlo Martuscelli

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