The Digital Services Act and the Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising: initial reflections

This paper analyses the issue of the manipulation of political consensus on social media and the impact of this phenomenon on the resilience of democratic systems. After highlighting characteristics and consequences of political targeting, the Author reflects on the regulations recently approved by the European Union, in particular the Digital Services Act and the Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising. The aim is to point out opportunities and criticalities of the strategy developed by the European Union to meet the challenges of the digital revolution.