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In its “Envoyé Spécial” (“Special Envoy”) programme broadcast on France 2 on 14 December 2017, the national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcast a report entitled “Celles qui accusent” (“The Women who Accuse”) covering events denounced by two women who had worked at their local municipal offices, which had resulted in the mayor of the municipality, who was also a former government minister, being brought to court on criminal charges of rape. Two days before the broadcast, the events had been examined by the criminal court (cour d’assises) in Bobigny. The report focused on one of the two people...

On 8 April 2019, the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is an independent expert group set up by the European Commission, published its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI. The Guidelines are timely, given that both the Council of Europe (see IRIS 2019-4/3) and UNESCO (see IRIS 2019-1/8) have also been examining the benefits and risks of AI, and indeed, on 17 May 2019, the Foreign Ministers of the Council of Europe member States agreed to examine the feasibility of a legal framework for the development, design and application of artificial intelligence. The purpose...

On 18 April 2019, the Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, Garante) issued the Resolution on Electoral Propaganda and Political Communication. The Resolution, in view of the imminent 2019 European elections, provides rules that data controllers (including political parties, organizations, promoters’ and supporters’ committees as well as candidates) shall follow when processing personal data for electoral propaganda or political communication purposes. Firstly, the Resolution clarifies the point at which data controllers must obtain data subjects’ consent...

On 8 April 2019, the Department for Digital, Culture and Media and Sport (DCMS) launched its consultative Online Harms White Paper, which sets out the United Kingdom’s proposals for regulations that would enable the UK to be the safest place in the world to go online, as well as the best place to start and grow a digital business. The main online problems concern the misuse of online sites by terrorist groups and sex offenders, online bullying, and the use of disinformation that risks undermining democratic values and principles. Social media platforms use algorithms, which lead to “echo chambers”...

The Act of 22 December 2018 on combatting the manipulation of news imposed a duty of cooperation on the principle on-line platform operators in a bid to combat the circulation of “fake news”. Under the Act, the national audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) may make recommendations to operators with a view to aiding them in implementing specific actions aimed at promoting the circulation of reliable news and combatting fake news that is “likely to disturb public order or compromise the integrity of any poll”. Following a series of hearings involving representatives...