Editorial 2024-04

IRIS 2024-4:1/1

Amélie Lacourt

European Audiovisual Observatory

We are only four months into 2024 and legislators and media watchdogs already have their hands full. Across the Atlantic, the presidential election season has provided fertile ground for verbal confrontation and the spread of disinformation. Lately, the US Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy developed a democratic roadmap to build civic resilience to the global digital information manipulation challenge.

On our side of the pond, the European Commission published Guidelines for providers of VLOPs and VLOSEs on the mitigation of systemic risks for electoral processes, and the French media regulator adopted a recommendation ahead of the upcoming European elections. As Germany recently came across a deepfake video featuring the Federal Chancellor, all this also reminds us that soft scepticism and hard skills are key to assessing the veracity of images and videos.

Video-sharing platforms have also been in the spotlight recently, with the Munich District Court ruling on TikTok's liability for users uploading copyrighted films to the platform and Italy handing its first sanction to X for prohibited online gambling advertising. The last few weeks have also been turbulent for Telegram, which faced a temporary suspension in Spain after being sued for allegedly enabling piracy.

This edition of the newsletter also covers legal and regulatory developments in Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ukraine.

 

Enjoy the read!

 

Maja Cappello, Editor

European Audiovisual Observatory