A new article has been published by Agnieszka Vetulani-Cęgiel and Trisha Meyer (IAS international duets team).
The article focuses on the EU policy on political advertising and online platforms’ practices of content moderation in the context of transparency of the public debate and platforms’ respective responsibility. In the digital age, political debate is exposed to various risks and undesirable practices, such as the dissemination of fake news linked to electoral campaigns. Political disinformation and deceptive advertising may raise populistic moods, increase polarisation and interfere with fair elections. It thus poses serious threats to democracy. In a context of ongoing political and policy debates on regulating online platforms, Meyer and Vetulani-Cęgiel investigate how the European Union and online platforms operationalise ‘political advertising’ and ‘transparency’. The Authors compare ongoing EU policy initiatives (the strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation and the Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising) against platform policies and practices (Google, Mastodon, Meta, Microsoft, Telegram, TikTok, Twitter/X) undertaken to moderate political actors and advertising. They argue that the concept of transparency is used as an ‘empty signifier’: meaningful at the political and declarative level but when translated into practice, leads to diverse results. The paper contributes to academic and policy debates on platform responsibility and political advertising transparency in light of the recent European elections and the implementation of the Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising. Research for the article was conducted within a project: ‘Internet platforms and the transparency of democratic processes’ (UAM ID-UB “International Duets” grant No. 092/12/POB5/0001) carried out by dr hab. Agnieszka Vetulani-Cęgiel, Prof. UAM together with Dr Trisha Meyer (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) between March 2023 and March 2024.
See: Meyer T., Vetulani-Cęgiel A. 2024. Transparency as an empty signifier? Assessing transparency in EU and platform initiatives on online political advertising and actors, Policy & Internet: 1‑21, online first (4.09.2024), https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.417