Around one hundred personalities from the media, culture and society have published a call to »reclaim the internet« as part of the Save Social initiative. One of the first signatories is Hans Schöpflin, President and Chair of the Board of the Schöpflin Foundation. The manifesto was presented on Safer Internet Day, February 11, 2025, at Publix. 

The manifesto »Save social networks as a democratic force« lists ten steps that will help to free the internet from the growing dominance of tech companies and strengthen alternative platforms for information and debate. The initiators are concerned about the fundamental right to freedom of opinion and information, freedom of the press, and freedom of broadcasting – and therefore about our democracy.

This is because a large part of the debate in the digital space now takes place on the platforms of a few tech companies such as Meta, X or ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. What people around the world talk about and what content is displayed to them is controlled by a few monopolists. Algorithms filter what users see – without transparency about the rules by which this is done. Instead, the Save Social initiative demands that journalistic quality standards and a focus on the common good should be the criteria for selecting posts. Currently, posts that primarily attract attention are given preference. This results in a flood of hate, malice, agitation and disinformation, which erodes democracy and endangers people.

Among the manifesto's demands is the strengthening of media education, the obligation of public institutions such as public authorities, universities, or public broadcasters to publish their content on open platforms and not only on the big monopoly platforms, and the liability of platform operators for the distribution of illegal content such as racism or discrimination.

In addition to some prominent individuals such as Jan Delay and Marc-Uwe Kling, organisations such as Greenpeace, the German Federation of Journalists (DJV) and Freelens, the professional association for freelance photographers, and Digitalcourage e.V. have also signed the appeal.On the day of the public presentation of the initiative, another 8,000 people joined.

Anyone who wants to sign the manifesto can do so on the Save Social website savesocial.eu/mitmachen or at Campact: weact.campact.de/p/save-social