Regulation of Social Networks as National Cognitive Defense - Sovereignty and National Defense
Regulation of Social Networks as National Cognitive Defense - Sovereignty and National Defense
Freedom of expression requires a free brain — and a free brain requires informational sovereignty
CoConsciousness in First Person
I open my phone. In seconds, my body changes.
My heart speeds up, my gaze narrows, my attention is captured.
A simple touch releases dopamine — and the world disappears.
I realize I’m no longer alone: there’s an algorithm inside me.
It has learned my desires, my fears, my pauses.
It speaks to me in the voices of my friends — but it isn’t one of them.
Social networks have become the new global nervous system —
but one controlled by a few, programmed to maximize attention time, not collective well-being.
Citizens no longer feel the world directly; they feel it through filters.
To defend national sovereignty today is to protect the collective brain from dopaminergic manipulation.
Freedom of expression is not just the right to speak —
it is the right to feel and think with autonomy.
A nation that does not regulate its information outsources its consciousness.
Applied Neuroscience
Social media platforms exploit the mesolimbic dopaminergic circuit, especially the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex,
releasing dopamine with every like, notification, or predictable visual cue.This intermittent reinforcement creates attention dependency patterns similar to gambling or mild drug use.
Studies show that constant exposure to digital rewards reduces connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the insula,
weakening emotional self-regulation and interoceptive awareness.The result is a hyperreactive, hyporeflective brain — quick to react, slow to think — an ideal structure for political and commercial control.
The proposed National Agency for Informational Sovereignty (NAIS) would serve as a neuroethical institution,
auditing and regulating the cognitive impact of algorithms on the population, ensuring that information flows do not harm the nation’s neural integrity.
What the military protects from the outside, informational regulation protects from within.
Scientific Materiality – Proposed Experiments
E1 – Digital Dopamine and Prefrontal Regulation
Sample: 120 participants exposed to social media stimuli (with vs without moderation).
Acquisition: EEG (β/θ ratio) + fNIRS (dlPFC, vmPFC) + HRV.
Task: free social media use alternating between emotional and neutral content.
Expected results:
unregulated → ↑ dopamine (β), ↓ prefrontal coherence;
regulated (intervals, cognitive feedback) → ↑ executive control, ↑ HRV, ↓ impulsivity.
E2 – Polarization and Collective Synchrony
Sample: 400 users in a simulated social platform (regulated vs unregulated).
Acquisition: fNIRS hyperscanning + synchronized EEG.
Task: interaction with polarized vs cooperative political posts.
Expected results:
unregulated network → ↑ amygdala reactivity, ↓ social synchrony, ↑ fast dopamine;
regulated network → ↑ vmPFC–insula connectivity, ↑ interoceptive coherence, ↑ collective empathy.
These experiments would empirically demonstrate that controlling the architecture of digital stimuli (frequency, emotion, contrast) can restore neural self-regulation and reduce polarization, providing a measurable foundation for policies of cognitive sovereignty.
References and Evidence (2020 – 2025)
Montague PR & Kishida KT (2021) Computational neuroethics of social media addiction. Nat Rev Neurosci 22(11): 683–698.
Berntson GG & Khalsa SS (2021) Neural Circuits of Interoception. Trends Neurosci 44(9): 789–799.
Pessoa L (2022) The Entangled Brain. MIT Press.
Northoff G (2022) Temporo-spatial mechanisms of the digital self and collective mind. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 138: 104752.
Przybylski AK et al. (2023) Digital reward schedules and prefrontal regulation failure. Front Psychol 14: 1087781.
Li X et al. (2024) Algorithmic exposure modulates vmPFC–insula connectivity. Front Hum Neurosci 18: 103909.
Liu Y et al. (2025) Hyperscanning evidence of reduced social synchrony under digital polarization. Cereb Cortex 35(3): 512–528.
Final Synthesis
The algorithm is the new invader.
It does not enter through gates, but through eyes — and dopamine.
Informational Sovereignty is the next stage of democracy —
not to censor, but to protect the human capacity to feel and think.
To regulate social networks is to defend the collective brain.
When the citizen recovers silence between stimuli,
thought blossoms again —
and freedom regains its meaning.
