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Frank-Walter Steinmeier is, you can sum it up so casually, “through” with social media.

“Far too often, social media reward quick lies - at the expense of reason and truth,” said the Federal President on Monday in a speech about “democracy and the digital public”.

The business of attentiveness becomes "a danger to democracy".

The providers of such platforms - Steinmeier named Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok in his speech - have little regard for values ​​such as respect, truth and civility, because “balance and moderation disrupt business”.

In contrast to real media brands, with social media there is “no editorial office, no press council and no competition that intervenes in a moderating and controlling way”.

The Federal President is apparently so concerned about the democracy-destroying effect of social media that his employees organized a discussion with the Bertelsmann Foundation that was held in Bellevue Palace.

Steinmeier submitted, speaking of the “ice-cold precision” of the algorithms, of “social evil”, of “lies and deceit” spread via the platforms, such as the “malicious fairy tale of the stolen election” in the United States.

Democracy is becoming "collateral damage to the business model" of the platforms.

Live recording in Bellevue Palace

Source: dpa

But of course a Federal President also needs answers to undesirable social developments, otherwise he could leave the discussion to others.

“The rule of law, rules and institutions” was the answer, the Federal President guided his audience out of the digital apocalypse.

It must now be about the democratization of the digital - and in cooperation with the USA also about the "re-establishment of the transatlantic partnership".

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These are of course ideal ideas in which the so-called open Internet is a “space of freedom”, as the pioneers of the World Wide Web had hoped for a few decades ago - but without regulation and with a lot of good (naive?) Will .

But it is no longer possible without regulation, as the presence of EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in the discussion made clear.

The EU is working under their leadership on a European body of regulations, and Vestager immediately noted that the regulation of “big tech” should not become a patchwork of individual national laws.

A common European approach is needed - and a global regulatory approach based on this.

But how strong the USA, how strong the EU is, is unclear and will only be revealed when this regulation is actually in place.

How much those Americans who want to curb the power of digital platforms are now relying on Europe, underlined Ben Scott, the managing director of a think tank that develops solutions to the challenges of digital structural change.

What should be regulated?

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The EU has the expertise, the will and the institutions to create the appropriate framework for the democratization of the digital world.

Scott also noted that in his opinion it was not the intention of digital corporations like Google and Facebook to be "on the wrong side of history".

The companies are able to change and still continue to earn money.

But it's not that simple either, Armin Nassehi made clear - and as the fourth participant in the conversation he underlined that it sometimes takes a sociologist to complicate things - with the best intention of highlighting the actual, deeper problems.

Nassehi, who teaches at the University of Munich, asked the simple question of what exactly the state institutions should regulate if it was difficult to identify those responsible in the value chain of the platforms, which are completely fed by users with third-party content.

This situation is at least "lost" and cannot be easily resolved, not even by changing the corporate culture of the tech companies.

This gray area, in which the companies operate, calls for "fuzzy regulation".

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That is why the American Scott once again summed up what needs to be regulated - “rules are needed to regulate the data - and to push the crazy again to the edge”.

By which he meant, on the one hand, a control of the collection of user data.

And on the other hand, the users of social networks, whose aim is to destabilize society by spreading hatred and disinformation - and against which Facebook and Co. are not doing enough because it is also part of their business model to intervene as little as possible.

What spurred the sociology professor Armin Nassehi to also formulate catchy.

One must come to the data in the regulation "of coal and steel".

In other words: if it worked then, it can work today.

Facebook launches news offer

While the Federal President and his guests were thinking about democracy and the digital public, Facebook had acted only a few hours earlier.

In a round with journalists, the launch of “Facebook News” was announced next May, a “dedicated place for journalistic content”.

In the future, numerous large and medium-sized German publishers are to equip an offer within the platform with postings of articles and will be paid for it.

Programs such as Facebook News, which has already been launched in the USA and England, are intended to strengthen the network's image as a partner to publishers who are keen to convey relevant content to its users.

Google offers similar agreements with the “News Showcase” program;

Here too, numerous publishers have concluded deals (Axel Springer does not participate in either the Google or Facebook programs with its WELT and “Bild” brands).

It is noticeable that the development of these journalism initiatives in many countries is taking place against the background of the regulation of digital platforms.

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In Australia, for example, Google and Facebook in particular should be required by law to make payments to all media companies.

When Facebook then suddenly blocked all media offers on the platform, the law was changed again.

In Germany, the reform of copyright law is current;

the bill also provides for a payment to the platforms for the use of journalistic content.

It is still unclear how the law is compatible with payments to publishers negotiated on a bilateral basis.

The draft will go to the first reading in the Bundestag at the end of March.

The democratic process is one thing, the platform strategy is another.

It remains to be seen whether the two will go together.