Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission
16.5.2024
Article 18 of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA)[1] (Article 17 in the Commission’s proposal) establishes a procedural mechanism to ensure that providers of very large online platforms (VLOPs) do not unduly interfere with editorial choices of certain media service providers that are subject to regulatory requirements or adhere to self or co-regulatory mechanisms governing editorial standards.
The EMFA will not affect the obligations for providers of VLOPs under the Digital Services Act (DSA)[2] or the commitments pursuant to the Code of Practice on Disinformation[3].
Article 18(4) of the EMFA states explicitly that this paragraph will not apply when providers of VLOPs act in compliance with their obligations pursuant to Articles 34 and 35 of the DSA.
In other words, providers of VLOPs will remain fully subject to their responsibilities under the DSA and Article 18 of the EMFA will not offer them any justification not to comply with their obligations to diligently act to tackle illegal content, protect minors and take measures to mitigate systemic risks stemming from their services, such as disinformation.
The Guidelines on the mitigation of systemic risks for electoral processes pursuant to Article 35 of the DSA[4] provide best practices and possible measures to mitigate such risks for VLOPs and Very Large Online Search Engines.
Article 18 of the EMFA concerns the relationship between media and providers of VLOPs when it comes to the application of the latter’s terms of services.
It builds on the Platform to Business Regulation[5] and Article 14 of the DSA which requires online platforms to pay due consideration to the impact on media freedom and plurality that results from the implementation of their terms of service to content moderation.
- [1] The latest available text (version voted by the European Parliament) is available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2023-0264-AM-332-332_EN.pdf
- [2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32022R2065
- [3] See 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/2022-strengthened-code-practice-disinformation
- [4] Draft guidelines were published on 26 March 2024, available at: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/guidelines-providers-vlops-and-vloses-mitigation-systemic-risks-electoral-processes
- [5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019R1150