In her most recent article for CNET, Sarah Perez reports on the EU’s decision to order TikTok to change how its newest algorithm interacts with users.
This move is significant. It confirms that European regulators are no longer willing to accept opaque systems that influence behavior, culture, and mental health without transparency or accountability.
However, while the article rightly focuses on algorithms, it also highlights a deeper issue that deserves more attention: the algorithm is not the core problem – the business model is.
At VojVoj, we have spent the last six years analyzing what is structurally flawed in today’s social media platforms. Across platforms, the same pattern appears. Doom scrolling, content overload, influencer persuasion, a decline in content quality, and intrusion of privacy all stem from one dominant incentive:
Ad-based social media!
When platforms are built to monetize attention through advertising, users become inventory. Algorithms are then designed not to serve creators or audiences, but to maximize engagement metrics that drive ad revenue.
Regulatory adjustments may force more transparency, but they do not change the underlying incentives.
This is where Europe now faces a strategic choice.
For decades, European citizens have lived inside platforms built by US and Chinese tech giants whose core business relies on large-scale data harvesting and third-party resale models that sit uncomfortably with European values and regulatory frameworks.
Rather than continuously reacting to these systems, Europe has an opportunity to lead by example.
When platforms are built around creators rather than advertisers, the entire dynamic changes. Value moves directly between people. Quality and relevance begin to matter again. With this model, users regain ownership of their time, attention, and privacy; platforms no longer depend on fabricated addiction to remain viable.
As Jan Strøm, founder of VojVoj, states:
“The era of manipulative algorithms and doom scrolling is coming to an end. The future belongs to platforms that give rights back to creators and deliver high-quality content to consumers—without exploiting either.”
This conversation becomes even more urgent as AI accelerates content production. Ad-driven legacy platforms are already being flooded with low-effort, AI-generated content optimized not for insight or value, but for conversion and product sales.
The result is an unsustainable environment that is defined by noise, declining trust, and diminishing returns for both creators and audiences. The EU’s intervention, as reported by CNET, is an important step, but algorithmic adjustments alone will not address the deeper, structural harm.
What is needed are not clearer explanations of broken systems, but better systems altogether. Changing how an algorithm behaves may reduce symptoms, but changing the business model changes the outcome.
That is the deeper issue that this new demand from the EU exposes in the present moment, and the conversation is now hyper-focused on a concrete solution.
Check out the full article here: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/tiktok-ordered-to-change-algorithm-eu/
