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Commission officials met lobbyists more than 100 times on the Digital Fairness Act
83% of the lobby meetings were with industry representatives 🤯
Less than 14% of these meetings were with NGOs and trade unions 🤔
Discussion
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Our new report shows Meta #lobbyists presented misleading claims to EU officials about the safety of Instagram for young women
These claims are contradicted by several recent independent studies as well as analyses of Meta’s own internal documents
The Consumer Choice Center – a lobby group funded by Google and Meta – has launched a project called ‘EU Tech Loop’, which publishes articles on the Euronews website that closely echo Big Tech talking points
This raises questions about untransparent Big Tech influencing via EU media spaces
Beyond Big Tech’s lobbying firepower, the Digital Fairness Act is facing several other obstacles:
- the EU’s deregulation agenda
- pressure from the Trump administration
- the growing power of the far right
- and the preference of centre-right politicians to limit rules for minors
The addictive design of social media is a major societal problem with serious impacts on public health & endangering the future of democracy
Weakening of the #DFA, in the name of 'simplification' or ‘competitiveness’, would only benefit the already excessively powerful US-based tech giants
There’s a very unequal #lobbying battle ahead, between Big Tech with its massive lobbying budgets versus civil society groups with far less resources
But civil society has public opinion on its side and citizens, increasingly fed up with Big Tech, are getting organised
Its time to get involved!
