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The DSA reflects the issue of advertising in its draft Art. 24, mandating transparency in advertising displayed by platforms – the traditional ad archives, discussed above. However, the proposal makes no acknowledgement whatsoever of new advertising business models emerging from content monetization...

This blog post is part of a collaborative education project on social media and platform governance undertaken by Prof. Nicolo Zingales (Fundação Getulio Vargas), Thales Bertaglia (Studio Europa/Institute of Data Science, UM) and Dr. Catalina Goanta (UM).

Could you estimate how much time of your day you spend on social media? The answer would most likely be something along the lines of ‘a lot’ or ‘I’m always connected, so I get notifications all the time anyways’ but an actual estimate, that’s a very tough guess to take. However, for most people, it...

One view on social media communication is that platforms should remove content deemed to be inappropriate or disturbing and suspend users who have repeatedly violated the Community Guidelines and should do so in a consistent and coherent manner. A contrasting view is that users can share what they...

Influencer marketing and mental health. The global spend on Influencer marketing is expected to reach $15 Billions by 2022, and naturally, brands have grasped how influential social media could be in their marketing campaign. Influencer marketing has grown exponentially, leaving more traditional...

In agony, many US citizens were awaiting the night of November 3^rd when the first voting results for the US presidential election were expected to trickle in. Having regard to what happened since May and what was bound to happen in the weeks following the election, Twitter, presumably, was...

Nowadays, the prominent role social media has in our society cannot be denied, plenty of people define themselves through their presence online.

The disturbances social media has been causing to its users’ mental health cannot be ignored. It is of extreme importance that the private and public spheres work together to protect consumers from the unfeasible search for perfection.

Over the few past years, there has been a professionalization of social media content creators. These creators now have the power to sway their followers, start trends, or serve as role models for their audiences. These individuals, that have such online persuasive power, are called “influencers”...

There are many inevitable things that we have to go through in life from the moment we are born: learning how to eat using a fork, learning to use the toilet, saying ‘thank you’, etc. This sequence of proper societal integration continues until we are adults. We always have to adapt to our...