Welcome back to a new issue of Recoding Tech’s newsletter. Together with the website, each recoding.tech newsletter offers relevant analyses and highlights of the policy discussions, research, and news from the past month that are shaping the rules for Big Tech.
In this month’s issue:
Featured topic:
How the Invasion of Ukraine Changes the Conversation About Governing Big Tech
What else:
Updates on how governments are recoding tech
Highlights from new research, policy papers, and news/commentary
Redesign and relaunch of the recoding.tech website
Featured topic
How the Invasion of Ukraine Changes the Conversation for Governing Big Tech
In response to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, Big Tech blocked European access to Russian state-media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in an unprecedented attempt to stem the flood of Russian disinformation and propaganda across the continent. The bans by Facebook, Google, TikTok, and others followed a decision by the European Commission to ban Russia's state media due to its "toxic and harmful disinformation.”
But if the goal was to cancel Russian disinformation on social media, these efforts are falling short. Despite headlines of account takedowns and the silencing of Russian state-run media on the internet, the Kremlin continues to exploit social media and other tech platforms to seed and amplify dangerous lies to justify the invasion and obscure its war crimes. In short, the demise of the Russian disinformation machine has been greatly exaggerated. Big Tech’s struggle to contain Putin’s information army seems to be an inevitable outcome of a business model that seeks to maximize attention, no matter the cost.
Though social media and other content platforms have undoubtedly created new avenues for freedom of expression, they have also enabled lies, gossip, and other harmful speech to find as large of an audience – if not a larger audience – than truth. Big Tech has long claimed it can address the harms that stem from the online world it has created, but as Kremlin-backed lies and disinformation continue to gain ground across the globe, they expose a harsh truth for the governments in the U.S. and Europe. So long as Big Tech is left to architect the digital marketplace of ideas, Putin and other authoritarians will continue to exploit it to undermine democracy and freedom. Policymakers can either accept this dangerous trade-off or reexamine the laws and regulations governing these companies.
Read more on recoding.tech.
Updates on how governments are recoding tech
Recoding.tech is tracking existing and proposed laws and regulations, along with government investigations and litigation from across the U.S. and Europe. Here are the new additions and updates for March. You can view all the actions being tracked on recoding.tech using our law & regulation tracker.
European Union. The European Parliament (EP) and the Council of the European Union (EU) reached a provisional political agreement on the text of the Digital Markets Act. The agreement codifies what platforms will be covered by the law, defines a set of prohibitions on unfair practices, and imposes obligations to increase competition.
The European Commission (EC) opened an antitrust investigation into a Google and Meta agreement for online display advertising service. The investigation into the agreement code-named “Jedi Blue,” gave Facebook an advantage on Google’s Ad auction platform in exchange for Facebook shutting down its effort to build a competitor service. The anti-competitive agreement was already part of a complaint by the State of Texas and other states currently being litigated in the U.S. courts.
United Kingdom. In parallel to the EC investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also opened an investigation of Google and Meta over ad tech concerns, including that the companies’ “Jedi Blue” agreement hampered competition in markets for online display advertising services.
United States. The Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act of 2022 was introduced in the U.S. Senate and House. It would establish new regulations to examine mergers, including a presumption of illegality for mergers valued at more than $5 billion. The law would also allow antitrust agencies to block mergers without approval from a court. This shift would bring the U.S. framework more in line with the European Union’s process for reviewing mergers. The legislation would also give both agencies clearer authority to unwind past acquisitions and mergers that have resulted in high levels of market concentration.
Did we miss something for March? Email hello@recoding.tech with recommendations.
Highlights of research, policy papers, and news/commentary
Recoding Tech curates a collection of academic and civil society research, policy papers, investigative journalism, and op-eds. These articles illuminate what’s wrong with Big Tech’s platforms and business models, debate policy options that could address the problems, and make recommendations for government action. Below are some highlights from March, organized by topic. You can explore the entire collection in our library.
Putin’s information war. New research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue shows the many ways Russian propaganda is thriving on social media. The Media Manipulation Project tracks takedowns and other content moderation as well as why TikTok is so vulnerable to misinformation. Tracking Exposed analyzes TikTok’s content restrictions. Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic discusses how democracies are enabling Putin, including how social media contributes to the problem.
Hashtag Pairing Is Being Used on Twitter to Facilitate Soviet Propaganda Tactic ‘Whataboutism’ – Institute for Strategic Dialogue
How Russian State-Controlled Media and Its Supporters Are Circumventing Social Media Restrictions – Institute for Strategic Dialogue
#Propaganda: Russia State-Controlled Media Flood TikTok With Ukraine Disinformation – Institute for Strategic Dialogue
TikTok, the War on Ukraine, and 10 Features That Make the App Vulnerable to Misinformation – Media Manipulation Casebook
Tracking Social Media Takedowns and Content Moderation During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Media Manipulation Casebook
TikTok Content Restriction in Russia – Tracking Exposed
America Needs a Better Plan to Fight Autocracy – The Atlantic
Disinformation and COVID-19. Two new studies examine the role of YouTube in spreading false information about COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, and a third looks at the interaction between partisanship and how much misinformation users see on Twitter. A paper assesses how anti-vaccination groups used social media to falsely link Hank Aaron’s death to the Moderna vaccine. Three papers evaluate strategies and interventions for addressing COVID-19 disinformation.
COVID-19 and Vitamin D Misinformation on YouTube: Content Analysis — JMIR Infodemiology
YouTube as a Source of Misinformation on COVID-19 Vaccination: A Systematic Analysis – BMJ Global Health
Partisan Asymmetries in Exposure to Misinformation —ArXiv
Spread of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation in the Ninth Inning: Retrospective Observational Infodemic Study – JMIR Infodemiology
The Challenge of Debunking Health Misinformation in Dynamic Social Media Conversations: Online Randomized Study of Public Masking During COVID-19 — Journal of Medical Internet Research
The Differential Effects of a Governmental Debunking Campaign Concerning COVID-19 Vaccination Misinformation – Journal of Communication in Healthcare
The Importance of Social Media Users’ Responses in Tackling Digital COVID-19 Misinformation in Africa — DIGITAL HEALTH
The limits of content moderation. The Verge reports on a bug in Facebook’s system to police misinformation on the platform’s News Feed that spiked views of repeat misinformation offenders by 30 percent globally. Two papers find partisan differences in how users respond to disinformation.
A Facebook Bug Led to Increased Views of Harmful Content over Six Months – The Verge
Partisan Blocking: Biased Responses to Shared Misinformation Contribute to Network Polarization on Social Media – Journal of Communication
The debate on how to regulate Big Tech. A survey from the Knight Foundation finds 71% of Americans believe the internet does more to divide than bring together, but there is no clear majority on what the government should do about it. A health law scholar grapples with the tradeoff between limitless free speech on the internet and public health.
Media and Democracy: Unpacking America’s Complex Views on the Digital Public Square — Knight Foundation
Vaccine Misinformation and the First Amendment—The Price of Free Speech — JAMA Health Forum
When algorithms run amuck. A researcher finds Facebook is quicker at recommending groups built around child predation than it is removing them. TikTok’s algorithm powers a “witch hunt machine.”
Facebook Has a Child Predation Problem — Wired
TikTok Has a Problem - The Atlantic
Did we miss something for March? Email hello@recoding.tech with recommendations.
Redesign and relaunch of Recoding.tech
We are excited to restart this monthly newsletter as part of an overall relaunch of the recoding.tech website. Our goal is to build an accessible library of resources and knowledge to help policymakers better understand the harms resulting from Big Tech and how governments can re-code the rules to protect the public interest and democracy. The revamped site has several new features, including a law & regulation tracker that follows proposed laws and regulations, government investigations, and litigation across the U.S. and Europe. Users can also now explore the site’s content organized by issue, policy, government, and company. A curated and searchable library of research, policy papers, investigative journalism, and op-eds is available as well.
As our team continues to develop content for the site and iterate on the design, user feedback on how to make the information as accessible and useful as possible is highly valued. Please reach out to hello@recoding.tech with any suggestions or questions.
About us
Recoding Tech is a Reset-supported initiative. Reset is engaged in programmatic work on technology and democracy. It seeks to change the way the internet enables the spread of news and information so that it serves the public good over corporate and political interests — ensuring tech companies once again work for democracy rather than against it.