Big Tech accused of stonewalling European social media researchers

AI 中文解读

大型科技公司被指控故意拖延和阻挠欧洲社交媒体研究人员的工作。事情的起因是去年11月罗马尼亚总统选举前，TikTok上原本只发美甲、时尚的账号突然集体炒作一个名不见经传的极端候选人，相关视频被观看1.2亿次，让这位原本支持率只有个位数的政客意外赢得首轮投票。荷兰马斯特里赫特大学的研究人员想追查这些内容背后的隐藏网红营销和直播政治活动是如何变现的，但科技巨头们却不提供数据，给调查设置重重障碍。这意味着，普通人很可能正被社交媒体算法暗中操控政治观点却浑然不知，而那些试图揭开真相、保护公共舆论的监督力量，却被关在了门外。

In the final weeks before Romania’s presidential vote in November 2024, TikTok accounts that had previously spent years posting about manicures or fashion suddenly started promoting a little-known politician named Calin Georgescu. His posts, espousing hard-line views on immigration and anti-Semitic tropes, were viewed 120 million times before the vote. Georgescu, who had previously been polling in the single digits, stunned observers by winning the election’s first round with 23 percent of the vote. In the Netherlands, Adriana Iamnitchi was watching closely. As chair of computational social sciences at Maastricht University, she leads the research into disinformation campaigns. She wanted to know how pro-Georgescu content was being monetized on TikTok through hidden influencer marketing and livestreamed political content.Read full article Comments