People vs BigTech – Reforming social media platforms: measuring the European public pulse

People vs BigTech believe that, to have a healthy information ecosystem, including social media platforms that empower people and promote healthy debates, a fundamental restructuring of how social media operates is needed. Whilst Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) alone is not sufficient to achieve this, with strong enforcement it can start reshaping how social media platforms operate and open the door for the more fundamental reforms needed. But, set against the financial interests of Big Tech, such will require significant political will and momentum, which will take a lot of time and effort to build up to. An important part of this project’s campaign is to show EU policy-makers that there is strong support for reforming social media among the electorate.

In this regard, the grantees commission a poll ahead of the EU elections with potential follow-up polls in the future. The poll will be accompanied by a campaign targeting Thierry Breton, the current European Internal Market Commission who is considered the architect of the DSA. The ‘demand’ of the campaign is to turn off profiling the week before and the week of the EU elections. If successful, this can be used as the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ and be used in the next mandate to demand longer-term, permanent solutions.

Granted: 15,000 euros