Internet users in the European Union are logging on to a quiet revolution on mainstream social networks today: The ability to say ‘no thanks’ to being attention hacked by AI.
Thanks to the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), users of Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok and Snap’s Snapchat can easily decline “personalized” content feeds based on “relevance” (i.e. tracking) — and switch to a more humble kind of news feed that’s populated with posts from your friends displayed in chronological order. And this is just the tip of the regulatory iceberg. The changes apply to major platforms in the EU but some are being rolled out globally as tech giants opt to streamline elements of their compliance.
Facebook actually got out ahead of today’s DSA compliance deadline by launching a chronological new Feeds tab ...
