The new challenges to democracy in the digital ecosystem (UM_NCDDE)

Affiliated Research areas

• Legal studies, comparative law, law and economics

Scientific Areas

• SH2_1 Political systems, governance

Keywords

• challenges
• democracy
• digital
• ecosystem

Summary

Ahead of the upcoming European elections, the Commission has adopted a "Democracy Defense Package" to promote free and fair elections, encourage citizen participation and counter interference from third countries. Similar priorities are pursued by the EU Regulation on Transparency in Political Advertising, adopted in February 2024. These interventions reflect the changing international context and the role of the Internet in political communication, and highlight the vulnerability of democracies to non-EU interference that can manipulate public discourse. The research will address these challenges with an innovative method: anonymized data from online political debate will be selected by data scientists using artificial intelligence, based on questions formulated by social scientists. The results will be jointly analyzed to propose reflections and replicable solutions at the European level. Researchers from eight international universities will participate, creating a network of researchers already working individually on the topic.