Eco look: Are we going to resist digital thugs?

The individual is alone before the power of dictatorships and the all-powerful business party embodied by the Trump-Musk duo and the princes of big tech. Now is the time to resist. Even the Federal Council, in its report published on June 14, 2024, had diligently described dark patterns, that is to say methods to deceive Internet users: disguised advertising, hidden costs, impossibility of comparing prices, accounts with countdowns, cockroach traps, harassment, surprise purchases, guilt, gamification, etc.

The report had well described the methods and characteristics of rigged interfaces depending on the type of platform, based on the exploitation of knowledge from behavioral psychology. What is the Swiss government’s reaction to the digital wild west? Do nothing. We’re not surprised.

When it comes to affecting markets, the Federal Council favors the unconditional freedom of economic actors. The legal void remains available. But, in Switzerland, the Constitution still reigns, particularly when it comes to the protection of the most vulnerable, children and young people who “have the right to special protection of their integrity and encouragement of their development” ( art. 11).

No one doubts that the preferred victims of digital thieves are young people and minors, whose vulnerability is easier to deceive, as countless research and scientific articles have already demonstrated. The Swiss people had already expressed concern to the point of accepting, on February 13, 2022, the popular initiative for the protection of children and young people with regard to cigarette advertising.

It is still the Constitution which requires the protection of the population with regard to alcohol (art. 105), as well as with regard to gambling (art. 106), but the parliament, despite the passivity of the Federal Council, also has instruments of protection, including legislation against unfair competition, that on data protection and that for consumer protection. It would be enough to draw inspiration from recent initiatives for the regulation of artificial intelligence, including in particular the convention adopted by the Council of Europe on May 17, 2024, as well as, at the level of the European Union, Artificial Intelligence Act, in force since August 1, 2024.

The vulnerability of children and young people leads all administrative and judicial authorities to submit each decision to the best interests of child protection. It is high time that minimal rules can prevent the psychosocial damage caused by persuasive technology. We cannot expect self-regulation from digital thugs. To resist the techno-giants, the European Commission has opened procedures against Meta and TikTok because of insufficient protection of children.

The Surgeon General of the United States has promoted warnings on digital platforms similar to those on cigarette packages. The European Union’s educational support program called “Klicksafe” launches awareness campaigns for parents, teachers and users.

A Swiss legal framework is urgently needed, before digital thugs start to carry out pervasive lobbying also at the Federal Palace.

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