Democracy in the Age of Deepfakes: How Can We Still Trust What We See?
The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has introduced a new dimension to the information landscape, enabling the creation of fabricated videos, images, and voices that convincingly imitate reality. Known as “deepfakes”, these synthetic media forms have become increasingly sophisticated and accessible, prompting concern among European policymakers and citizens alike. While they may once have appeared as online jokes or curiosity pieces, they now pose a serious threat to democratic trust across Europe. In the lead-up to elections, during conflict, or in everyday social media use, manipulated content can spread fast, eroding confidence in [...]
Teen Age-Verification on Social Media: Australian & European Approaches
Every generation faces new frontier problems. For today’s teens, the frontier is digital — a world of likes, shares, endless scrolling, and unseen pressures. With concerns mounting about mental health, attention spans, and the unseen harms of social media, Australia has taken an important step: a law banning social media access for under-16s. As that policy looms, the question for other countries is unavoidable: is this kind of ban effective or a misunderstanding of technology and young people? In November 2024, the Parliament of Australia passed a world-first law prohibiting youth in early adolescence [...]
MINDS & TRUST
As we look at the campaign for the US elections, an alarming trend is clear: the infantilisation of voters. Instead of meaningful discussions, we see debates reduced to catchy slogans and personal stories designed to trigger emotions rather than encourage evaluation and thinking. In Europe, we see a similar pattern with the far right making gains. Short, out-of-context videos are being used to personally attack candidates rather than to engage with their ideas, and we are inundated with news about violence designed only to generate anxiety and unjustified fear. Is this really what we [...]
The Rise of Antidemocratic Far Right, Propaganda and Disinformation
The European Parliament Elections resulted in a significant shift as the extreme right gained substantial ground. With 220 seats, extreme right parties currently make up almost one-third of the parliament, while Greens and Socialist Democrats have lost 18% and 3% of their seats, respectively. Far-right parties have been persistently targeting younger voters with success. A video that was posted on the social media platform X just a few weeks before the elections, where a group of German youth chanting 'Germany for Germans, foreigners out!' went viral. In the Flemish region of Belgium, Flemish [...]
Europe is for Peace
The European Parliament’s Spring 2024 Eurobarometer survey is the latest survey conducted before the 2024 European elections. The survey was carried out by Verian (previously known as Kantar Public) between 7 February and 3 March in the 27 EU Member States. More than twenty-six thousand (26411) interviews were conducted face-to-face using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing). The results were weighted according to the population size of each country. Survey Findings According to the survey, there is notable interest among citizens in the upcoming European elections and an understanding of their importance in [...]
How Platforms Compete to Get our Attention?
When you log in to your social media accounts, you are constantly exposed to a flood of new information and content. Every day, you are exposed to this stream of data that is competing for your attention. Being online causes us to switch rapidly between tasks, leading to a lack of presence in the offline world. While online, our attention rapidly switches between tasks on different online activities, apps, social media and websites, and by the end of the day, you may feel drained and irritated. Although technology has brought about many improvements in [...]
The EU Policies on Digital Well-Being
Digital well-being encompasses our online safety, managing our online time, our ability to critically assess the media we consume and becoming responsible and confident digital citizens. In this regard, the European Union is actively striving to enhance the digital environment to benefit all citizens of Europe. According to The Council of the EU and the European Council’s website, “our digital life needs to be safe, easy and respectful of basic freedoms”, and the EU is focusing on various policy areas to enable a digital future for Europe. The Council of Europe also incorporated [...]
EU ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ACT: NEW RULES
12/04/2024 Artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution. Its proliferation and gradual improvement will profoundly change our economy and daily lives. However, as AI tools become more powerful and efficient, their potential negative impacts raise concerns among institutions and the need to regulate them. The European Union has established itself as a pioneer in governing this new field. On March 13, 2024, the European Parliament approved the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), which lays the foundations for regulating the use of AI in the EU. It is the first legal framework for the [...]
Mind the Surprising Media Mechanisms Influencing Voting Preferences
Remember the last time you went to vote. Remember how you took the ballot and entered the voting booth with the candidate you long before settled upon firmly fixed in your mind. Or did you decide right there, on the spot? Or perhaps you changed your mind in fractions of a second before the vote stamp touched the ballot? Whether your vote results from careful deliberation and well-pondered expression of your political will or arises from a spontaneous last-moment decision, our minds can sometimes trick us into making decisions we are not fully aware [...]
European Elections 2024
Between 6 and 9 June 2024, millions of Europeans will vote to renew the European Parliament. The European elections are a crucial moment that will determine the future direction of the European Union, as the decisions taken at the European level affect all Europeans. Free and fair elections are at the heart of every democratic system. Everyone has the right and the duty to participate and make their choice independently. However, growing disinformation, misinformation and the spread of AI deep fakes undermine public trust in the legitimacy and efficacy of democratic institutions, influencing [...]
