Social
media has brought powerful innovation to our
societies. But for too long they have been
able to evolve with literally just one
goal: maximizing their profit, even if that
meant radicalizing our societies, delegitimizing
science or a rise in teen
depression.
Now, thanks to this
regulation
which some have called a
new constitution for the Internet, we
can demand a future where technologies are
shaped around common values, and protect our
fundamental human rights, instead of exploiting
our weaknesses.
Also, with so much
disillusionment around politics, this regulation
has shown Europe at its best. With almost all
the demands from citizens, experts and civic
society organizations landing in some way in the
text just voted including:
- Detoxify the algorithm--
make the platforms take responsibility for the
harms they cause to our societies, like the
viral spread of dangerous disinformation;
- Big
sanctions -- Face fines up to 6% of
their global income, yes we're talking billions
of dollars here, if they don’t fix their
systems;
- Open the black
box -- Allow independent auditors,
researchers and civic society to scrutinize
their actions and uncover their wrongdoings;
- Stop
surveillance ads -- Ban the
exploitation of children’s data, and our
political beliefs or gender choices, to target
us with ads.
🎉 Join
the celebration by retweeting the Avaaz
tweet here or
posting on Facebook hereFor
over four years Avaaz has been on the forefront
of the public push to force social media
platforms to tackle the harms they create. From
the
EU, to
the
US, or
Brazil, we have reported on
disinformation and
its
scale,
commissioning polls on its
harmful effects,
evaluating platforms'
efforts to tackle them, and
identifying their failures.
None of this would have been possible without
the Avaaz membership. It was a huge shared
effort. But it paid off. And now we’re making
history.
With deep excitement and
determination,
Luca, Sarah, Christoph,
Joana, Nadia, Andy, Rosie, Luana, Camille,
Barbara, Sam and the rest of the Avaaz team