Ireland

[IE] Irish media commission de-designates Reddit as a video-sharing platform service under its jurisdiction

IRIS 2025-6:1/4

Eric Munch

European Audiovisual Observatory

On 23 May 2025, the Irish national media regulatory authority, Coimisiún na Meán (the Media Commission) de-designated Reddit as a video-sharing platform (VSP) service. The de-designation does not come as an indication that the initial designation of the service was incorrect, but due to the fact that service provider of Reddit is no longer under the jurisdiction of Ireland, and therefore not subject to the Media Commission’s online safety codes.

Reddit had been designated as a VSP services at the end of 2023, when the Media Commission issued a series of notices to services established in Ireland that it estimated fell under the VSP designation (IRIS 2024-7:1/4).

On 15 January 2024, Reddit had launched High Court proceedings to challenge its designation as a VSP service, which sided with the Media Commission on 20 June 2024, confirming the service’s designation.

The High Court had indicated that Reddit's arguments with regard to jurisdiction were based on a misunderstanding of the framework governing the determination of jurisdiction under the OSMR Act, which provides that the Media Commission has jurisdiction over Ireland-based subsidiary undertakings of VSP service providers not established in the EU, as is the case with Reddit. The judge further indicated that the provision of links to videos hosted on other platforms could still be considered user-generated videos within the meaning of the revised AVMS Directive. Given the presence of “native” video content hosted directly on Reddit, it was not necessary to further assess if the provision of links was sufficient to designate Reddit as a VSP.

The Media Commission notes that Reddit’s service to users in the EU is now provided by a Dutch entity, which would make it fall under the jurisdiction of the Netherlands and its national media regulatory authority, the Commissariaat voor de Media.