Publicly Run Social Media – A Solution for Europe?

TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are not neutral public spaces. Designed to maximise attention and engagement, these platforms play a major role in shaping public opinion in Europe. They amplify misinformation, polarisation and hate speech, while also encouraging patterns of use that harm mental health.

The EU has begun to respond through the Digital Services Act. Yet success up to now is limited.

Could Europe build a public-service social media model, inspired by public broadcasting – social media that protect democratic debate, strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty and offer a healthier online environment?

This event will explore that question and introduce a European Citizens’ Initiative calling for a European public-service social media infrastructure.

With Lukáš Mikulecký, Co-Leader of the European Citizens’s Initiative “European Public Social Network”.

New! 1:1 Conversations! After our one-hour open discussion, we invite you to stay for another 30 minutes. You’ll be paired up randomly and answer four questions together in a one-on-one conversation.

The idea behind: meet new people from across Europe and exchange ideas in a more personal setting. The breakout rooms will stay open for as long as you like.

I think it would be better to have these public spaces be outside the control of foreign tech companies, but I'm also unsure whether it would be better to have one centralized EU social media network. I think that the Fediverse (such as Mastodon) could be relevant here. How do other people feel about this?

EU citizens initiative: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2026/000004_en

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Where is it abused? I'm sure there are countries where this holds true, but there are many European countries where I'll take public broadcasting a hundred times of anything else

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Slovakia and hungary. Not sure how poland is doing these days, but there was an infamous news segment a few years ago that got international attention, because it was basically 5 minutes of simping for Andrzej Duda. Right before the elections.

I recognize the quality of work people in these institutions achieve. Not everything they put out is a political order, they still do decent journalism. It's just that every now and then, you need to be aware of who controlls them. About what they say, or most importantly, what they don't say when it comes to reporting on certain topics.

It might seem nice to have a funcioning "public" media, but all I see is a ticking time bomb, waiting for one bad election...

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What you want and need is government funded, yet independent media companies. Basically, government should fund an independent media org that can fund news outlets with a limited set of rules like "Must be as truthful and unbiased as possible", etc.

[–] deafboy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

government funded, yet independent

🤨

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Yes, that actually is possible. You could have the government fund news and journalism directly, but that indeed would invite the government to curate the news. If you have an independent non profit in the middle that has as core mission to fund ALL news and journalism, as long as it is independent and unbiased, then it becomes much harder for the government to control details of the news.

The org, in its turn, can then dictate that all news outlets that receive funding must be factual and unbiased.