Social media and generative artificial intelligence (genAI) are driving a structural transformation of online information environments, making it increasingly difficult for citizens to determine which sources are credible, which claims are trustworthy, and whether content is human-generated or synthetic. This transformation is undermining cognitive agency: namely, citizens’ ability to assess and revise beliefs independently. Without it, democratic deliberation and self-determination falter. 

Existing EU regulation does not adequately address this structural transformation. Therefore we elaborated a Policy Paper with these three main recommendations:

• Expand the definitions of systemic risk and manipulation in the AI Act and the DSA to capture harms from synthetic content to information environments.
• Strengthen cognitive agency by expanding digital literacy programs in the Democracy Shield Initiative.
• Improve DSA enforcement to protect information environments through better research access and resources.

It was a joint project of CETE-P's Tuğba Yoldaş, John Dorsch and Paula Gürtler in cooperation with Jacqueline Bellon, Jakub Šimko, Matúš Mesarčík, Sara Solarova and Andrew McIntyre. 

Czech version of the Policy Paper will follow. There will be a Policy Paper Nr. 2 in this series to follow.