Regulating Artificial Intelligence – Balancing Between Protecting Citizens Privacy and Fostering the Industry’s Growth in Europe

The digitization of daily life has entered all areas in which humans activate, be it work, entertainment, social environments, or other areas of interest. The political environment has not been omitted, especially due to social media platforms. As it currently stands, social media has been playing for a number of years a significant role in disseminating and accelerating social debates, bringing to the surface latent issues as well as propagating voices which otherwise might represent the fringe opinions of small groups. In this context, research has been ongoing to understand the nuanced way in which it has impacted society, as a perpetrator of disinformation, and the impact it has had on European regulations by increasing the protection of data and privacy, after the entry into force of EU Regulation 679/2016. Thus, the objective of this article is to offer a legal and ethical framework for the utilization of artificial intelligence in Europe. The study utilized a systemic research method to look into the intricate and interconnected issues involved in regulating social media platforms, identifying key themes and patterns that emerged from the data, which were then utilized to create recommendations for the regulation of social media platforms, that can be utilized by researchers and policy makers.