Sarah Murphy Madia

Decision to impose fine on X - a Freedom of Information request to Communications Networks, Content and Technology As soon as it becomes legally possible to do so, please provide access to the formal decision of the Commission, announced on 5 December 2025, to impose a fine on X for non-compliance with the Digital...

Are you wondering why the legal decision on X's fine was first published by the US House of Representatives rather than by the European Commission?

Us too.

Especially as we officially requested it to the Commission 3 weeks ago:
www.asktheeu.org/request/deci...

EU Decision Behind €120m Fine on Musk’s X Released by US Lawmakers This marks the first time a Digital Services Act enforcement decision of this magnitude has been disclosed.

📄 US lawmakers have published the EU's full decision behind the €120m fine on X before Brussels did, escalating their campaign against the Digital Services Act and EU platform rules.

via @techpolicypress.bsky.social

www.techpolicy.press/eu-decision-...

Demand the Data: What’s Really Going Viral? | Mozilla Foundation Social media platforms aren’t sharing what goes viral on their sites. Tell YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X to disclose their most-viewed content. Sign now.

Billions of people scroll every day. But what’s actually going viral on social media? 🤷‍♀️

We asked the platforms for one simple thing: their most-viewed posts.

They all said no 🙃

Help us demand transparency now:
mzl.la/3M8Eh9L
@algorithmwatch.org @scg-uzh.bsky.social @lessurligneurs.bsky.social

🚨 NEW INVESTIGATION - How Facebook Offers Monetization Services to Political Parties

Our new research looks at how political parties are turning to social media #monetization as a new source of revenue and financial contributions - and explores implications for #BrandSafety and #Election integrity

Academics, civil society and regulators, all coming together to get wonky about the DSA (but more importantly, to hash out ways to help the DSA further efforts to ensure internet integrity in Europe and beyond) 🌟

Thanks again to those who joined our @whattofix.tech / @aiforensics.org workshop!

Social media money machines kill online integrity. What can Europe do? - EU Perspectives MEPs debate how EU rules can bring transparency to social media monetisation plans, warning of hidden influence behind online payouts.

"Ms Murphy Madia’s intervention pushed the debate into the transparency of monetised content."

Nice write-up of WTF Policy Lead @sarahmurphymadia.bsky.social's intervention at the European Parliament's @euds.europarl.europa.eu.

Monetization CAN be a boon to info integrity. But not w/o big fixes.

Streaming agenda - Multimedia Centre Stay updated with our stream agenda. Find information on upcoming live streams about the plenaries, committees, press conferences, and other scheduled events.

We're back at the @europarl.europa.eu 🇪🇺 this afternoon.

Our Policy Lead @sarahmurphymadia.bsky.social will be engaging in an exchange of view with the #EU @euds.europarl.europa.eu

🎬 Watch the live-stream: multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstream...

#Monetization #FIMI #MediaViability

Such a delight to join this morning’s #MFRR summit in Brussels.

It’s always cool, if sobering, to help show how social media #monetization has such an outsized impact on everything from media viability to our entire state of information integrity.

Let’s get transparency already.

Happy to be back at the European Parliament’s @euds.europarl.europa.eu next
Mon where we’ll talk about, among other things, how social media monetization systems currently UNDERMINE public-interest media, but also abt how such systems could reinforce media viability, even under current regulation.

🗓️Mon 13 Oct in @euds.europarl.europa.eu

🕒 15:15 - 18:30 – Debates

🛡️🌐 Online ads, media resilience & countering foreign interference w/ @sarahmurphymadia.bsky.social
of "What to fix"

🇲🇩 🗳️Lessons from the recent Moldovan 🇲🇩 elections 🗳️w/ Stanislav Secrieru @davidcolon.bsky.social Valeriu Pașa

🧶1/2

Google Just Removed Seven Years of Political Advertising History from 27 Countries Ahead of the European Union's Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising, Google's Ad Transparency Center no longer shows political ads from any countries in the EU.

Google’s Ad Transparency tool no longer shows political online advertisements that ran on its platforms, in the past or present, from any countries in the European Union, making seven years of data from 27 different countries inaccessible.

🔗 www.404media.co/google-ad-tr...

Money + politics = messy.

Perhaps that’s why #Meta’s policies prohibit politicians and political candidates from its #monetization services.

Yet our research reveals NUMEROUS politicians and political candidates that successfully enrolled for Facebook's various monetization services.

Our #MonetizationArchive is live!
Social media monetization services are a bafflingly under-scrutinized but INCREDIBLY important factor influencing how our info landscape takes shape. (Plus an important topic re independent media viability.)

Curious? Start here: www.monetization.wtf/about/meta-m...

💥 Super excited to bring the world's first Social Media Monetization Archive prototype into the world!

If you ever wondered #WhoMakesMoneyFromFacebook, this is your chance at a sneak peak 👉 www.monetization.wtf

🚨Big deal announcement🚨
We’ve been hard at work prototyping the world’s first ✨social media #MonetizationArchive ✨
And we’re ready to share it with you.
Read on.

Could #Facebook have been channeling money to a Mexican drug cartel?

The El Makabelico Facebook page (825k+) was registered to get royalties from FB until the introduction of #OFAC #sanctions on the rapper on 6Aug for sending royalties to Cartel del Noreste

👉 home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...

Screenshot of Washington Post homepage. Lead headline is: "Mass starvation stalks Gaza as deaths from hunger rise." Lead image is of a woman in Gaza holding an almost impossibly emaciated child

Harrowing lead story and image on the Washington Post homepage right now. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

In Brussels 🇧🇪 today for the European Parliament's hearing on Generative AI and Democracy.

I talked about 3 key changes:
♦️ rise of social media monetization
♦️ proliferation of inauthentic automation
♦️ redefinition of platforms' advertising models

🎬 multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstream...

Happening NOW:
@riovictoire.bsky.social speaking at the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Democracy Shield.

Livestream: multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstream...

Starting in 20 min! Watch my colleague @riovictoire.bsky.social testify at a European Parliament #EUDS public hearing on generative AI and democracy.

Coming up in 45 min: @riovictoire.bsky.social joins @aa.disinfo.eu to discuss our @whattofix.tech report on how Meta seemingly monetized multiple EU-sanctioned entities through its revenue redistribution programs.

“Facebook pages affiliated with RT, Sputnik and other EU-sanctioned entities were among Meta’s active partner-publishers for months after being subject to EU sanctions. Some of these partnerships remain active as of June 2025.”

Has Meta violated sanctions?
www.whattofix.tech/publications...

Who profited – and how – when Meta kept revenue-sharing deals with sanctioned entities like RT & Sputnik?

Our webinar on 3 July with @riovictoire.bsky.social, @whattofix.tech, will unpack the findings and what they mean for platform accountability.

Join us! 👇
🔗 us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

See our new report (on how Meta has onboarded EU-sanctioned entities into its rev redistribution programs) for a sense of what a weirdly overlooked wild west this part of social media monetization is...
But also, how it can ABSOLUTELY be reigned in for the better. www.whattofix.tech/publications...

Right now - as you can see from Oliver's episode - we have no visibility into who exactly platforms pay for content, but we DO know that platforms' revenue redistribution programs incentivize a bunch of (often harmful!) slop.

Why fall back on fatalism when we could address the incentive systems?

John, you said you "don't know how to fix it" (ie the flood of AI slop and the corresponding crumbling of our global epistemic stability). Luckily, our org @whattofix.tech works on exactly how to fix THIS problem.

One first step: require transparency into + regulate revenue redistribution programs

Huge John Oliver fan, and this episode was pretty solid for the most part. He makes the connection between revenue redistribution and the explosion of AI slop and automation.

But his conclusion: He throws his in the air and declares epistemic fatalism in the face of AI slop onslaught.

WHAT?! Nooo

🚨 Just Released 🚨
@whattofix.tech 's latest investigation into how #Facebook (Meta) engaged in revenue redistribution partnerships 💸 with RT, Sputnik and other EU-sanctioned entities for months after the introduction of sanctions.

Full report -> www.whattofix.tech/publications...

So excited this report has made it out the door.

There’s basically no scrutiny into or transparency around the huge revenue redistribution programs run by social platforms.

There’s so much talk abt labeling for paid influencers, etc. That’s all well and good. But what abt PLATFORM monetization??

[🚨 Exclusive] Our latest investigation finds that Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. may have violated EU sanctions and channeled money to RT, Sputnik and other EU-sanctioned entities.

You read that right: Facebook *pays* some content publishers.

Read full report → www.whattofix.tech/publications... /🧵