On Thursday, March 5, starting at 2:00 PM, the Digital Affairs committee will meet with representatives from the European Commission and the Authority for Consumers and Markets to discuss social media platforms. The discussion focuses on European laws aimed at preventing the use of algorithms for state interference: how effective are these? At 4:00 PM, committee members will receive a technical briefing from representatives of the Rathenau Institute. Both meetings can be followed live via Debat Direct.

The committee is focusing on this topic at multiple moments this week. On Wednesday, March 4, there was a roundtable discussion, which included representatives from major international social media companies Meta, Google, and TikTok, as well as independent experts from knowledge institutions and civil society organizations. 

Regulation 

During the roundtable discussion, committee members sought to learn more about how recommendation algorithms work and what measures can be taken to regulate addictive and disruptive elements. The risk that algorithms are used for state interference in elections in our country to influence voter behavior was also discussed. 

Legislation 

The Thursday discussion with representatives from the European Commission and the Authority for Consumers and Markets focuses on legislation intended to prevent state interference. The discussion will partly be in English. 

Rathenau Institute

Later in the day, the committee will receive representatives from the Rathenau Institute. They will provide a technical briefing on the research the institute conducts on algorithms and interference. Questions the committee has posed to the institute include: how do recommendation algorithms of major social media platforms work, how can recommendation algorithms be used to make political candidates or political-social issues more visible, what legislation and regulations already exist to prevent interference via recommendation algorithms, and what is still needed? 

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