Popularity-driven Metrics: Audience Analytics and Shifting Opinion Power to Digital Platforms external link

Dodds, T., Vreese, C.H. de, Helberger, N., Resendez, V. & Seipp, T.
Journalism Studies, 2023

Abstract

As digital technologies have made their way into news production, allowing news organizations to measure audience behaviors and engagement in real-time, click-based and editorial goals have become increasingly intertwined. Ongoing developments in algorithmic technologies allow editors to bring their audience into the newsroom using specialized tools such as Chartbeat or Google Analytics. This article examines how these technologies have affected the composition of the audience and their power to influence news-making processes inside two Chilean newsrooms. Drawing on several months of newsroom ethnography, we identify how the pursuit of “clickable news” impacts editorial processes and journalistic priorities by changing the datafied audience opinion power behind news production. Shifts in opinion power, loss of control, and increased platform dependency may contribute to a concentrated media landscape. Our findings show that opinion power has shifted to a datafied version of the audience, raising new questions about platform dependency and editorial autonomy in media organizations. These results carry significant implications for understanding the chase for traffic in current multiplatform newsrooms and how this phenomenon impacts news production.

Media law

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

Dealing with Opinion Power in the Platform World: Why We Really Have to Rethink Media Concentration Law external link

Seipp, T., Helberger, N., Vreese, C.H. de & Ausloos, J.
Digital Journalism, 2023

Abstract

The platformised news environment affects audiences, challenges the news media’s role, and transforms the media ecosystem. Digital platform companies influence opinion formation and hence wield “opinion power,” a normatively and constitutionally rooted notion that captures the core of media power in democracy and substantiates why that power must be distributed. Media concentration law is the traditional tool to prevent predominant opinion power from emerging but is, in its current form, not applicable to the platform context. We demonstrate how the nature of opinion power is changing and shifting from news media to platforms and distinguish three levels of opinion power: (1) the individual citizen, (2) the institutional newsroom and (3) the media ecosystem. The reconceptualization at the three levels provides a framework to develop future (non-)regulatory responses that address (1) the shifting influence over individual news consumption and exposure, (2) the changing power dynamics within automated, datafied and platform-dependent newsrooms, and (3) the systemic power of platforms and structural dependencies in the media ecosystem. We demonstrate that as the nature of opinion power is changing, so must the tools of control.

Media law, news, Platforms

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

Leading the Charge on Digital Regulation: The More, the Better, or Policy Bubble? external link

Codagnone, C. & Weigl, L.
Digital Society, vol. 2, num: 4, 2023

Abstract

For about a decade, the concept of ‘digital sovereignty’ has been prominent in the European policy discourse. In the quest for digital sovereignty, the European Union has adopted a constitutional approach to protect fundamental rights and democratic values, and to ensure fair and competitive digital markets. Thus, ‘digital constitutionalism’ emerged as a twin discourse. A corollary of these discourses is a third phenomenon resulting from a regulatory externalisation of European law beyond the bloc’s borders, the so-called ‘Brussels Effect’. The dynamics arising from Europe’s digital policy and regulatory activism imply increasing legal complexities. This paper argues that this phenomenon in policy-making is a case of a positive ‘policy bubble’ characterised by an oversupply of policies and legislative acts. The phenomenon can be explained by the amplification of values in the framing of digital policy issues. To unpack the policy frames and values at stake, this paper provides an overview of the digital policy landscape, followed by a critical assessment to showcase the practical implications of positive policy bubbles.

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

Freedom of Expression and the EU’s Ban on Russia Today: A Dangerous Rubicon Crossed external link

Fahy, R. & Voorhoof, D.
Communications Law, vol. 27, iss. : 4, pp: 186-193,

Abstract

In RT France v Council, the General Court of the European Union found that the ban on RT France in the EU did not violate the right to freedom of expression and media freedom, under Article 11 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Notably, the General Court sought to apply principles from case law of the European Court of Human Rights and international human rights law. This article argues that there are serious questions to be raised over the General Court’s reasoning in RT France, and the judgment arguably represents a deeply problematic application of European and international free expression principles.

Vrijheid van meningsuiting

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

ALLEA Statement on Open Access Publication under “Big Deals” and the New Copyright Rules external link

Kluwer Copyright Blog, 2022

Copyright, Digital Single Market, open access, remuneration

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

Annotatie bij Hoge Raad 25 februari 2022 (Google) download

Nederlandse Jurisprudentie, iss. : 37/38/39, num: 259, pp: 4708-4709, 2022

Abstract

Privacyrecht. Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming (AVG); verzoek verwijdering zoekresultaten; gevoelige persoonsgegevens (art. 10 AVG); maatstaf. Proceskosten in AVG-zaken; doeltreffende voorziening (art. 79 AVG en art. 47 Handvest Grondrechten EU).

Annotaties, AVG, Privacy, zoekresultaten

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

Annotatie Hoge Raad 3 december 2021 (Hoist Finance AB) download

Nederlandse Jurisprudentie, iss. : 37/38/39, num: 258, pp: 4640-4642, 2022

Abstract

Prejudiciële beslissing op voet art. 392 Rv. Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming (AVG). Rechtsgrond verwerking persoonsgegevens in kredietregistratiestelsel BKR; recht op gegevenswissing; recht op bezwaar.

Annotaties, AVG, Privacy

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

Using Terms and Conditions to Apply Fundamental Rights to Content Moderation external link

German Law Journal (forthcoming), 2022

Abstract

Large online platforms provide an unprecedented means for exercising freedom of expression online and wield enormous power over public participation in the online democratic space. However, it is increasingly clear that their systems, where (automated) content moderation decisions are taken based on a platform's terms and conditions (T&Cs), are fundamentally broken. Content moderation systems have been said to undermine freedom of expression, especially where important public interest speech ends up suppressed, such as speech by minority and marginalized groups. Indeed, these content moderation systems have been criticized for their overly vague rules of operation, inconsistent enforcement, and an overdependence on automation. Therefore, in order to better protect freedom of expression online, international human rights bodies and civil society organizations have argued that platforms “should incorporate directly” principles of fundamental rights law into their T&Cs. Under EU law, and apart from a rule in the Terrorist Content Regulation, platforms had until recently no explicit obligation to incorporate fundamental rights into their T&Cs. However, an important provision in the Digital Services Act (DSA) will change this. Crucially, Article 14 DSA lays down new rules on how platforms can enforce their T&Cs, including that platforms must have “due regard” to the “fundamental rights” of users under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. In this article, we critically examine the topic of enforceability of fundamental rights via T&Cs through the prism of Article 14 DSA. We ask whether this provision requires platforms to apply EU fundamental rights law and to what extent this may curb the power of Big Tech over online speech. We conclude that Article 14 will make it possible, in principle, to establish the indirect horizontal effect of fundamental rights in the relationship between online platforms and their users. But in order for the application and enforcement of T&Cs to take due regard of fundamental rights, Article 14 must be operationalized within the framework of the international and European fundamental rights standards, and therefore allowing Article 14 to fulfil its revolutionary potential.

Content moderation, Digital Services Act (DSA), Freedom of expression, Online platforms, platform regulation, terms and conditions

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

Compliance of National TDM Rules with International Copyright Law: An Overrated Nonissue? external link

IIC - International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, vol. 53, pp: 1477-1505, 2022

Abstract

Seeking to devise an adequate regulatory framework for text and data mining (TDM), countries around the globe have adopted different approaches. While considerable room for TDM can follow from the application of fair use provisions (US) and broad statutory exemptions (Japan), countries in the EU rely on a more restrictive regulation that is based on specific copyright exceptions. Surveying this spectrum of existing approaches, lawmakers in countries seeking to devise an appropriate TDM regime may wonder whether the adoption of a restrictive approach is necessary in the light of international copyright law. In particular, they may feel obliged to ensure compliance with the three-step test laid down in Art. 9(2) of the Berne Convention, Art. 13 of the TRIPS Agreement and Art. 10 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty. Against this background, the analysis raises the question whether international copyright law covers TDM activities at all. TDM does not concern a traditional category of use that could have been contemplated at the diplomatic conferences leading to the current texts of the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement and the WIPO Copyright Treaty. It is an automated, analytical type of use that does not affect the expressive core of literary and artistic works. Arguably, TDM constitutes a new category of copying that falls outside the scope of international copyright harmonization altogether.

Artificial intelligence, Auteursrecht, Text and Data Mining (TDM)

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib

The EU’s Digital Identity Policy: Tracing Policy Punctuations

Weigl, L., Amard, A., Codagnone, C. & Fridgen, G.
Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance , pp: 74-81, 2022

Abstract

This paper analyzes the development of the European Union's digital identity policy. The analysis focuses on the dynamics leading to a sudden shift from identity management as a sensitive topic under national competence towards a common, harmonized, user-centric European Digital Identity Framework layering on top of Member States’ existing systems. We adopted a syncretic approach to Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and focused specifically on the concept of policy punctuations and policy image. Process tracing is used as a method to trace and interpret causal mechanisms of policy processes. The empirical analysis is grounded in elite interviews and policy documentation. To open up the black box of policy-making, we analyze and disaggregate the policy process. We thereby provide a better understanding of the historical-political and technological mechanisms that determine particular policy outcomes.

RIS

Save .RIS

Bibtex

Save .bib