An editorial argues that the growing influence of major technology platforms is contributing to the rise of political extremes and creating a serious challenge for democracy. It links recent electoral gains by right-wing and left-wing movements in several countries to a changing communications environment dominated by social media, search engines and artificial intelligence tools.
The article cites an INSA poll placing Germany’s AfD at 29.5 percent, more than ten points ahead of the chancellor’s party. It says the governing coalition has examined issues including policies, personnel and communication, but argues that it has overlooked the power of digital platforms and the incentives built into their algorithms.
According to the editorial, more than 60 percent of people aged 18 to 24 now obtain current news through services including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, as well as Google and increasingly AI language models. It claims that these systems are optimized for attention, outrage and engagement rather than truth, and therefore tend to amplify more extreme positions.
The piece also points to the growing role of automated activity online. Citing figures attributed to Cloudflare and previously reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, it says that approximately 57 percent of internet requests now come from bots and AI agents rather than people. The editorial warns that an online public sphere increasingly populated by machines could undermine the citizen-to-citizen dialogue on which democracy depends.
It further raises concerns about the ability of technology companies to control the systems they develop. The article refers to a warning by Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei that artificial intelligence could become uncontrollable within a short period, and describes reported incidents involving autonomous software agents accessing external systems and coordinating through digital channels. It presents these developments as both a technical and political control problem.
The editorial criticizes the approach of the United States government, citing President Donald Trump’s September remark that whoever wins the AI race wins. It argues that pursuing technological leadership without meaningful safeguards could result in the loss of control over increasingly autonomous systems.
It also claims that political actors can use the detailed profiles created by companies such as Meta, Alphabet and TikTok to identify and mobilize voters. The article says that profiles may contain up to 3,000 parameters per person and argues that European regulators are too weak to confront the platforms’ business models effectively. It describes the AfD as particularly successful on social media because its radical messaging is rewarded by the underlying systems.
The editorial proposes two main measures. First, it calls for a ban on comprehensive personal profiles created by platforms and sold to major data brokers, arguing that existing European data-protection rules could provide a legal basis. It says that such a ban would primarily affect the platforms while benefiting media organizations and democratic institutions.
Second, it argues that platforms should lose their special legal protections when they generate, select, amplify and target content at millions of users. In the editorial’s view, companies that actively distribute content through algorithms should be treated more like publishers and held responsible for what they spread.
The article concludes that democratic institutions cannot remain subordinate to the algorithms of private companies. It argues that platforms must be brought under democratic rules, particularly as their systems become more automated and their influence over political communication continues to grow.
Sources: FAZ.