Content Recommendation Regulation
Challenge
Nowadays, social media is the most used information source for most people. The Internet connects people from all around the world and especially through social media. It shapes world perspectives and impacts people’s decisions in their real life.
The algorithms are based on personalization and therefore create polarisation and echo chambers, which are a threat to healthy participation and perception of democracy. Personalised algorithms may prioritise subjective preferences over objective facts. When users are consistently presented with content tailored to their preferences, it can erode the common understanding of objective truth and shared reality, hindering informed democratic debates.
Regulating social media content is a great opportunity to broaden the perspectives of media users to create a more informed and democratic online community, as well as to prevent further polarisation in society. As such, regulations on content recommendations are crucial to ensure that people have access to information from a broad range of perspectives.
Proposal
We are proposing the adoption of binding regulations limiting personalised content exposed to social media users. A first step would be to implement an EU-policy guaranteeing that 5% of all recommended content on platforms like Instagram and Tiktok is not personalised to the specific individual’s algorithms. Following that, a global implementation is the goal. Our initiative aims to expose social media users to content that they would not normally see, in order to promote a broader world-view and different perspectives.
In the context of the European Union, we suggest the implementation and the supervision of our proposal will be organised by either the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communication or the Board of Digital Services. This will be the first step of a global implementation, as the European Union is the biggest common market. The second step, in a global context, would include the creation of a supervisory body entrusted with safeguarding the internet from polarising discourse and practices by guaranteeing a minimum level of pluralism on the web. A methodology for the supervision will be developed and used as a measurement. A possible model would be a global index which would rate the amount of non-personalized content shown on the platform to each individual. The higher the amount of non-personalised content, the higher the score. This could be comparable to the Nutri-score index, which helps individuals make better informed decisions.
Impact
The proposed initiative, considering the use of social media among young people and various other age groups, has the potential to yield a range of positive impacts.
Firstly, the implementation of algorithm regulations can prioritise diverse and reliable content since it will provide unbiased information, factual content, and diverse viewpoints on political matters. This can help citizens make more informed decisions based on a broader understanding of various perspectives. By doing so, they will be able to think more broadly before deciding whether to relate to a particular campaign or group of people.
Further, these non-personalized social media contents can raise awareness about important civic issues, government policies, and rights. They provide educational content that informs citizens about their roles, responsibilities, and the impact of their participation on the democratic system.
Next, by disseminating accurate information and countering false narratives, non-personalised social media contents contribute to combating misinformation and disinformation, strengthening the integrity of democratic processes. Our proposal is an addition to already existing policy proposals combating false information online around the world.
Finally, non-personalized content can stimulate critical thinking by encouraging users to compare information from different sources rather than relying on content tailored to their pre-existing beliefs. It promotes a culture of critical thinking and broadening the perspectives of individuals.