Power, Politics, and Social Media: The Battle for Influence in a Digital World

A report by Toni Mrad, English adaptation by Nadine Sassine

Imagine that a Russian court requested the US company Google to pay three Russian TV channels huge amounts of money as compensation for removing these channels from YouTube and deleting their accounts on Google. 

Google had taken this step in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine and accused Moscow of spreading misinformation in support of the Russian government's policies. What happened between Russia and America is an example of major powers trying to extend their influence over major social media companies and access users' personal data to serve their policies and interests.

This is similar to what happened to the Russian billionaire Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram. Durov spent several days in jail in France, where French authorities investigated him regarding several accusations, including fraud, promoting terrorism, cyberbullying, child exploitation in pornography, and other crimes. 

The UAE, of which Durov is a citizen, intervened and requested French authorities to allow it to provide consular support to him. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron had offered Durov the opportunity to move Telegram's headquarters to Paris, but Durov declined, according to the US newspaper, the Wall Street Journal.

Some linked what happened to Durov to issues of freedom of expression. This was echoed by Elon Musk, CEO and owner of the platform X, who posted on X saying: "In my view, by 2030, you might be executed in Europe just for liking a satirical meme." However, the issue seems to go beyond that. According to some observers, the reasons vary, with the most prominent being related to national security. Social media companies hold user data, which can be used for espionage purposes.

For instance, former US President Donald Trump launched a fierce attack on the TikTok app, threatening to ban it in the United States due to concerns that China might exploit the data to spy on American citizens. Social media data could also be sold or shared with third parties for political or commercial purposes. For example, Cambridge Analytica obtained data from around 50 million Facebook users to influence their opinions during the US presidential election, which led to Donald Trump's victory in 2016.
From a commercial perspective, according to the Financial Times, TikTok, owned by a Chinese company, generated about $16 billion in revenue in the US last year.