TY - GEN A1 - Bollmann, Hanna-Sophie A1 - Gibeon, Gaia T1 - The spread of hacked materials on Twitter: A threat to democracy? A case study of the 2017 Macron Leaks N2 - Elections are democracy’s most important yet most vulnerable moment. Interference in the process presents an attack on the foundations of trust and knowledge in a democratic society, as seen in the Macron Leaks, a hack-and-leak operation spread on Twitter on the eve of the 2017 French presidential elections. Hack-and-leaks have become a popular modus operandi for foreign actors, often backed by Russia, to meddle and undermine democratic elections. First, we discuss the challenges democracies face by hack-and-leaks, then we turn to explore Twitter’s past attempts to self-regulate hacked materials. These were made in response to political events in the US and changing public pressure in the US, putting the platform at risk of becoming a plaything of populist movements and foreign actors seeking to undermine democracy. Until recently, the EU lacked any adequate response but the recently published revised version of the EU’s Code of Practice on Dis-information (June 2022) may signal a change. Twitter has signed the Code and promises to adopt and implement policies to prevent the spread of manipulative behaviour. Should Twitter change its Hacked Materials Policy, it will be the first time it is done in response to regulatory measures. Y1 - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-44932 U6 - https://doi.org/10.48462/opus4-4493 ER -