Transparency and (no) more in the Political Advertising Regulation

Max van Drunen, University of Amsterdam
Eva Groen-Reijman, University of Amsterdam
Tom Dobber, University of Amsterdam
Arman Noroozian, University of Amsterdam
Paddy Leerssen, University of Amsterdam
Natali Helberger, University of Amsterdam
Claes de Vreese, University of Amsterdam
Fabio Votta, University of Amsterdam

PUBLISHED ON: 25 Jan 2022

The Regulation on Political Advertising (RPA) represents the EU’s most significant effort to address concerns about political advertising’s democratic impact, but does it live up to the Commission’s hype?

This op-ed is part of a series of opinion pieces edited by Amélie Heldt in the context of a workshop on the Digital Services Act Package hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society on 15 and 16 November 2021 in Berlin. This workshop brought together legal scholars and social scientists to get a better understanding of the DSA Package, in detail and on a meta level.

P2B and the missing relational dimensions of the Digital Services Act

Ohad Somech, Bar-Ilan University
Maayan Perel, Netanya Academic College
Niva Elkin-Koren, Tel Aviv University

PUBLISHED ON: 23 Nov 2021

This op-ed is part of a series of opinion pieces edited by Amélie Heldt in the context of a workshop on the Digital Services Act Package hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society on 15 and 16 November 2021 in Berlin. This workshop brought together legal scholars and social scientists to get a better understanding of the DSA Package, in detail and on a meta level.

This op-ed is part of a series of opinion pieces edited by Amélie Heldt in the context of a workshop on the Digital Services Act Package hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society on 15 and 16 November 2021 in Berlin. This workshop brought together legal scholars and social scientists to get a better understanding of the DSA Package, in detail and on a meta level.

This op-ed is part of a series of opinion pieces edited by Amélie Heldt in the context of a workshop on the Digital Services Act Package hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society on 15 and 16 November 2021 in Berlin. This workshop brought together legal scholars and social scientists to get a better understanding of the DSA Package, in detail and on a meta level.

Political advertising exposed: tracking Facebook ads in the 2021 Dutch elections

Davide Beraldo, University of Amsterdam
Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam
Jeroen de Vos, University of Amsterdam
Claudio Agosti, University of Amsterdam
Bruno Nadalic Sotic, University of Amsterdam
Rens Vliegenthart, University of Amsterdam
Sanne Kruikemeier, University of Amsterdam
Lukas P Otto, University of Amsterdam
Susan A. M. Vermeer, University of Amsterdam
Xiaotong Chu, University of Amsterdam
Fabio Votta, University of Amsterdam

PUBLISHED ON: 11 Mar 2021

How can we monitor political ads circulating on social media in the run-up to an election? This essay learns from the project "Analysis of Political Ads in Digital Campaigns”, combining scraping methods and public opinion research to investigate how online advertising shape political preferences in the Dutch general elections (15-17 March 2021). It further reflects on the challenges of studying the impact of political micro-targeting.

Regulation of news recommenders in the Digital Services Act: empowering David against the Very Large Online Goliath

Natali Helberger, University of Amsterdam
Max van Drunen, University of Amsterdam
Sanne Vrijenhoek, University of Amsterdam
Judith Möller, University of Hamburg – Leibniz Institute for Media Research (HBI)

PUBLISHED ON: 26 Feb 2021

​A much anticipated provision in the European Commission’s proposal for a Digital Service Act is Art. 29 DSA - the provision about recommendation algorithms. In this brief commentary we reflect on the background, purpose and potential of Art. 29 to address the effects of recommenders for users and society.