Use of Social Media

by EU Institutions and Bodies

47th DPO Day Online Editon

Dr. Robert Riemann,

Technology and Privacy Unit

EDPS

8th May 2020

Table of contents

1. Communication and Communication Channels

2. Global Social Media Landscape

3. Social Media Channels of EU Institutions and Bodies

4. Data Processing on Social Media Platforms

5. Risks arising from Communicating on Social Media Platforms

6. Mitigation Ideas

1

Communication and Communication

Channels

What is Communication?

Definition (informal)

Communication is when Alice tells Bob something.

Definition (formal)

Communication shall be defined as the act of passing information encoded in

messages from senders through a channel to recipients.

2

What is Communication?

Definition (informal)

Communication is when Alice tells Bob something.

Definition (formal)

Communication shall be defined as the act of passing information encoded in

messages from senders through a channel to recipients.

2

What is Information?

Fun Fact:

Not every message contains information.

Placeholder/Known Text (relative!)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod

tempor.

Garbage/Random Text

gZTYz+4rrl0hurma1/9XoX7ckEkngIBF5Rn/6yiFClvvh8ffXvBplj-

JOcKF1Voue89cR9YVSjZ

More on Wikipedia: Entropy (Information Theory)

3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(information_theory)

What is a Communication Channel?

The channel is the medium that allows to convey themessage.

Examples

• over the air � (speaking)

• over wire � (LAN)

• radio waves � (WLAN, Bluetooth, Radio, Satellite TV, 5G, smoke signs)

• applications (Whatsapp, Signal, Twitter, Webex)

4

What is a Communication Channel?

The channel is the medium that allows to convey themessage.

Examples

• over the air � (speaking)

• over wire � (LAN)

• radio waves � (WLAN, Bluetooth, Radio, Satellite TV, 5G, smoke signs)

• applications (Whatsapp, Signal, Twitter, Webex)

4

What are Channel Characteristics?

Some channels are better than other channels.

Properties

• with and without back channel (simplex/duplex)

• audience size (range)

• quality

• cost per message

• messages per time and delivery speed

• centralised or distributed (topology)

• audience selection (targetting)

5

The Evolution of Communication Channels (Essence)

1. everything is small, costly and very distributed

(horse post �, gossiping �)

2. everything is large, cheap, centralised, but without back

channel (TV �, radio)

3. everything is large, cheap, centralised, targetted, with

back channel and in HD! (social media)

6

Quiz

How much GiB data do you

download when watching 1h

Netflix in HD?

� 3GiB

How much GiB data do you

need to send every human

being the message ‘Hello!’?

� 5.3 GiB

6

Quiz

How much GiB data do you

download when watching 1h

Netflix in HD?

� 3GiB

How much GiB data do you

need to send every human

being the message ‘Hello!’?

� 5.3 GiB

6

Quiz

How much GiB data do you

download when watching 1h

Netflix in HD?

� 3GiB

How much GiB data do you

need to send every human

being the message ‘Hello!’?

� 5.3 GiB

6

Information Saturation

1. Sending information is really cheap.

2. Everyone wants to send information.

3. Though, people do not want to read from everyone.

People rely on information curation/prioritisation

and some form of governance.

7

Information Curation

Curation as a form to guide personal attention

• order messages (prioritise)

• filter messages (delete)

Impact on

• filter bubbles

• fake news

• opinion manipulations

The curator has the power!

8

Information Curation/Governance by Channel

Mail Mailinglist Facebook Page

authorisation none (filter lists) moderator FB user

authorisation granularity N/A per list per page (topic)

prioritisation ordered by time ordered by time FB algorithm (AI)

9

Information Curation/Governance by Channel

Mail Mailinglist Facebook Page

authorisation none (filter lists) moderator FB user1

authorisation granularity N/A per list per page (topic)

prioritisation ordered by time ordered by time FB algorithm (AI)2

1FB Page owners can buy advertisements to bypass authorisation.2FB Page owners can buy advertisements to be prioritised.

9

Global Social Media Landscape

Many People use Social Media

� � � � � �

1

2

·1092.5 · 109

2 · 109 2 · 109

1.3 · 109

1 · 109

3.86 · 108

activeusers

Figure 1: Estimated worldwide social network users as of April 2020.

10

Social Media Channels of EU

Institutions and Bodies

Where does our Data come from?

Methodology

1. Get the list of all EUI websites.

2. Scan each homepage with the WEC.

3. Extract links to common social

media platforms from WEC results.

4. Filter links for unique profiles

(pages).Figure 2: Website Evidence

Collector (WEC)

Results: 962 social media profiles found.

11

https://github.com/EU-EDPS/website-evidence-collectorhttps://github.com/EU-EDPS/website-evidence-collector

Example Elements from extracted List

{

"parent": "europarl.europa.eu",

"job": 1188,

"page": "http://www.europarl.europa.eu/visiting/en/homepage.html",

"hostname": "instagram.com",

"path": "/visit_ep",

"link": "https://www.instagram.com/visit_ep/"

},{

"parent": "cor.europa.eu",

"job": 118,

"page": "http://epp.cor.europa.eu",

"hostname": "twitter.com",

"path": "/epp_cor",

"link": "https://twitter.com/epp_cor"

} 12

Top 7 Social Media Platforms across EUI

� � � � � � �

0

100

200

300 � = Slideshare.net

355

183157

105 89

397

EUIprofiles

Figure 3: Top 7 social networks by EUI profile numbers.

13

Social Media Platforms per EUI

EC EP CoR

JRC

easme

EIB

ECSEL

ECDC

0

200

400

EP without MEP profiles

EUIprofiles

� facebook.com

� linkedin.com

� twitter.com

� youtube.com

� instagram.com

Figure 4: Top 8 EUI by their total social network profiles.

14

Instagram Followers per EUI profile

EC EP

Council

ECHO

EUDevCo

EEAS

visitbrussels

Simon

Mignolet

0

0.5

1

·106

4.01 · 105

2.34 · 1051.33 · 105 76,124 69,702 57,408 1.27 · 10

5

1.22 · 106Instagram

followers

Figure 5: Top 6 EUI Instagram profiles by their followers (without MEPs). 15

Twitter Followers per EUI profile

EC

CharlesMichel

EP(EN)

ECB

Council

EEAS

visitbrussels

Simon

Mignolet

0

0.5

1

1.5

·106

1.28 · 1061.16 · 106

6.61 · 1055.58 · 105 4.99 · 105

3.18 · 105

81,523

1.44 · 106Tw

itterfollowers

Figure 6: Top 6 EUI Twitter profiles by their followers (without MEPs). 16

Facebook Likes per EUI profile

EP EC

Erasmus

EUNEAR

Council

EPSO

EUENV

visitbrussels

Simon

Mignolet

0

1

2

·1062.6 · 106

1.07 · 106

5.99 · 105 5.58 · 1054.21 · 105 3.95 · 105

2.73 · 105 3.96 · 105

1.36 · 106

Facebooklikes

Figure 7: Top k EUI Facebook profiles by their likes (without MEPs). 17

Delivering Messages on Social Media

The Journey of a Message to Social Media Followers

1. Profile owner submits message to social media.

2. Social media places message in feed of some most active followers.

3. Some followers scroll down in feed long enough to read the message.

4. If a message leads to engagement, the social media algorithm may

deem it interesting and display it later to more people (organic grow).

5. Owner can pay to enlarge audience (advertisements).

In no case, all followers get eventually the message!

18

To keep in mind

• The EUI are present on most social media platforms.

• The EUI have hundreds of social media profiles.

• The EUI have together few million followers.3

3Though, much less may receive any EUI messages.

18

Data Processing on Social Media

Platforms

Data Processing on Social Media Platforms

1. behavioural tracking and profiling for various purposes including

personalisation, advertisements, (covered) research, machine learning

2. large-scale processing of many sensitive data

3. data sharing practices with various third-parties

4. targetting by third-parties using e.g. custom audiences

5. linking and aggregation of profiles after company mergers

6. processing of information outside of the EU

19

Social Media Issues

Lookback

• foreign electoral intervention (US election)

• Cambridge Analytica (Brexit)

• Attention Economy

• Influencer Marketing

Complex processing activities of global companies pose of-

ten challenges to transparency and efficient enforcement/ex-

ercise of data subject rights.

20

Risks arising from Communicating

on Social Media Platforms

Social Media Risks for the EUI

What could potentially go wrong for EUIs?

• EUI might be a co-controller and responsible for data

processing on social media.

• Social media might block or delete profile unilateraly.

• EUI might pay for advertisements without chance to verify

delivery (fake views).

• EUI might communicate mostly with bots.

• Normalisation of official messages on Social Media.

21

Social Media Risks for Followers [2]

What could potentially go wrong for Followers?

• Profile enrichment when following EUI profiles.

• Third-parties target followers based on their EUI interests

(e.g. third countries send ads to all who follow ECHO).

• Followers confuse offical and fake profiles.

• Followers are nudged to social media for a better service

(usability, design, response time)

• Followers send sensitive data (political affiliation)

to EUI profiles on social networks.

22

New Social Media Use Cases

• trainings (EUI staff) on � LinkedIn Learning

• click-through adventures for kids like� The Portal Diaries

• prize competitions like � #beActive or � #IamEurope

• influencer marketing �

23

http://linkedin.com/learning/https://www.instagram.com/theportaldiaries/https://ec.europa.eu/sport/news/beactiveathome-for-health_enhttps://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/eu-affairs/20190117STO23723/i-am-europe-take-part-in-our-instagram-photo-contest

Mitigation Ideas

Mitigation Ideas [1]

• transparency, access to privacy policy and DPO contact

• avoid nudging people to use EUI social media channels

• offer data protection-friendly alternatives that include

• same content at the same time �

• same level of interactivity (sharing, rating, commenting �)

• same level of usability (across devices � �)

• same chance to win prizes! �

EP Initiative: � mirror epnewshub.eu

24

https://www.epnewshub.eu

Free Software Alternatives

Free Software can help to offer data protection-friendly alternatives:

Examples

• Video Portal PeerTube

• Short Message Blogs � Mastodon

Early Adopters

• MEP Patrick Breyer on � echo_pbreyer

• Gouvernment of Baden-Württemberg on � RegierungBW

• � Mastodon test server of French administration

25

https://joinpeertube.org/https://joinmastodon.org/https://chaos.social/@echo_pbreyer/https://mastodon.social/@RegierungBWhttps://www.etalab.gouv.fr/etalab-ouvre-une-instance-mastodon-pour-les-agents-publics

References i

[1] New Guideline on the use of social networks by public authorities issued by

the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of

Baden-Württemberg. 6th Feb. 2020. url: https://www.baden-

wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Richtlinie_

Nutzung_soziale_Netzwerke_%C3%B6ffentl_Stellen_EN.pdf.

[2] Terms of Service: Didn’t Read. 7th May 2020. url: https://tosdr.org.

https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Richtlinie_Nutzung_soziale_Netzwerke_%C3%B6ffentl_Stellen_EN.pdfhttps://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Richtlinie_Nutzung_soziale_Netzwerke_%C3%B6ffentl_Stellen_EN.pdfhttps://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Richtlinie_Nutzung_soziale_Netzwerke_%C3%B6ffentl_Stellen_EN.pdfhttps://tosdr.org

Questions and Answers

Communication and Communication ChannelsGlobal Social Media LandscapeSocial Media Channels of EU Institutions and BodiesData Processing on Social Media PlatformsRisks arising from Communicating on Social Media PlatformsMitigation IdeasAppendix