Could AI Act Be Used to Put an End to Social Media Madness?

As I get older, I become more cranky. What used to excite me now frustrates me. Chief among these frustrations is social media. Once I poked my friends mercilessly on Facebook, now I can’t stand TikTok or Instagram. I no longer have any social media, and it makes life hard, as everything from poetry slams to children’s after-school activities are organized through it. I am not much for banning stuff; I am more of a live-and-let-live kind of guy. But in a hypothetical scenario where we are discussing banning TikTok (because American tech companies feel threatened), why stop there? Why not ban X, too, and all the rest of it? The EU has made some noise to protect the democratic process and to ensure fair markets for tech giants before. The existing legal framework of GDPR, DSA, and DMA has been used for this. I think the EU may have a new tool in its regulatory repertoire to hit the social media giants with.

The AI Act (AIA) classifies certain uses of AI as an unacceptable risk. Social scoring, à la China, is outright banned, for example. So are AI systems that manipulate or deceive people (e.g., subliminal manipulation). I am no lawyer, so this is only my opinion, but hear me out here. Considering all the talk about election interference, I would say there is a legitimate concern for manipulation and deception. Just look at how Twitter has changed under Elon Musk. All safeguards are gone, and certain accounts are automatically followed and cannot be unfollowed.

But where does the AIA come in? Social media feeds are built by algorithms. They emphasize and hide content algorithmically. There is no human supervision (especially as content moderation has been abolished) of the algorithm that chooses what users see. These algorithms are AI in a typical sense. They are machine learning algorithms.

So, if we were to be a bit radical (it seems to be all the rage these days), I would argue that social media recommendation algorithms are manipulative and deceptive AI. Now, I understand this is a simplification of a very complex issue, but I believe we are better off without them. So, ban TikTok and all American companies with it. But what do I know? I am not a lawyer, and when it comes to social media, I am practically a Luddite.