this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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Does Europe Need Its Own Social Media Platforms? (vid.freedif.org)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's all absolutely right. The tech monopolies, which are mainly owned by US companies, are almost impossible to break up โ€“ and it's certainly not something we can expect from users themselves. In my opinion, this can only be achieved through regulatory intervention, such as Switzerland has implemented for Amazon for example. Unfortunately, however, this is also highly unlikely within the EU.

Nevertheless, I think it is necessary. Essentially for two reasons:

  • I believe that the manipulation of opinion by the current social media will sooner or later lead to the end of democracies, as I believe is already beginning in the US.
  • The user data that makes social media platforms so valuable will continue to be controlled by US corporations, making it impossible for European companies to ever gain a foothold in the AI market (despite all the ethical problems and the inappropriate marketing hype surrounding it, I do not consider AI to be a trend, but rather a key technology).

In short, I think that if Europe does not do everything in its power to finally become more independent in terms of technology, we will very quickly fall even further behind than we already are. I also fear that we will no longer be able to save what is left of our social market economy or preserve our democracies.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Hah. If anything you're giving US democracy way too much credit there.

I think something's got to give, and European strategic independence will certainly be a requirement, both in this area and others.

I just don't know what that looks like or what the path to it looks like. And in the meantime the antidemocratic dynamics are already at play. We may be in a much worse position on all of this by the end of today.