German magazine Die Aktuelle, owned by the Funke media group, published on 15 April an AI-generated ‘interview’ with Michael Schumacher. The magazine’s front cover claimed to offer ‘the first interview’ with a Formula One driver featuring a photo of him smiling. The interview text, however, turned out to be AI-generated conversations and quotes. The mixed feelings around the deceptively real ‘interview’ caused the editor-in-chief to be fired after being on the job since 2009.
Michael Schumacher and his family have been leading a strictly private life without interviews since his skiing accident in 2013. The family is said to be planning legal action against the magazine.
The order comes after a group of 43 content moderators, previously employed by Sama, sued Meta and its partners for unlawful practices of discrimination and contract terminations. In March, evidence showed that Majorel, Meta’s replacement for Sama, has not improved work conditions resulting in the court barring Majorel from becoming Meta’s new moderation partner and mandating it to continue with the outgoing subcontractor, Sama, until the case was heard.
After the final verdict, it is unclear who will perform content moderation for Meta in the region. Meta spokesperson said that Meta’s working with ‘global partners’, causing concern about their ability to sift through content with a nuanced understanding of local African languages.
After last month’s Congressional hearing of TikTok’s CEO, the Biden administration has been trying to ban the social platform in the United States. Concerns have escalated about TikTok being the Chinese government’s backdoor into the US, a tool for manipulating American citizens and gathering their personal data.
Focusing more locally, Montana has become the first state in the US to ban TikTok. Governor Greg Gianforte signed the law stating that TikTok poses a security threat of surveillance and encouragement of dangerous activities. The law primarily applies to companies, prohibiting app stores from offering TikTok and not to individual users who already use the app and may continue to do so. Some industry leaders have critiqued the new law, saying it sets a dangerous precedent for the government to ban businesses without clear evidence of wrongdoing.
Attempts to ban TikTok are not new, as the Trump administration attempted a forceful sale to Microsoft in an effort to ban it back in 2020. However, it has now become clear that even the politically unified Washington does not have a clear way of banning TikTok. Attempts to force selling it to an American enterprise have been futile. No precedent exists where a communication tool has been banned before without clear evidence of a national threat. Even if a new law gets passed, the legal battle of banning TikTok will hit a stalemate regarding the First Amendment. A nationwide ban seems impossible also due to the political backlash of more than 150 million users in the country.
In her recent draft report for the proposed European Media Freedom Act, Sabine Verheyen, the EU parliamentarian serving as the rapporteur in the culture and education parliamentary committee (CULT), introduces important changes in content moderation, governance, market concentration and media outlets from outside Europe.
The European Media Freedom Act is the first-ever legislative proposal regulating the EU media sector. While aimed at ensuring media pluralism and independence, the proposal has been criticised by publishers.
The proposal has been modified to include the limitation of content or services and not just suspensions. Platforms would be required to notify media providers 48 hours before the implementation of the restriction. This also applies to situations where the platform’s algorithm reduces the visibility of the content, allowing for a lengthy objection period of two days, a considerable amount of time for online sharing on social media.
The report also calls for establishing a new regulatory body, the European Board for Media Services, to boost cooperation between national media regulators and ensure greater independence from the European Commission. The report limits market concentration to mergers that ‘significantly impact pluralism’. Such wording distinguishes among mergers that ensure the survival of smaller, less financially viable outlets.
This report will be the foundation for the upcoming discussions among lawmakers leading to the legislation’s adoption in September.
Elon Musk has commented on the issue of Twitter taking down content related to a critical documentary of India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, earlier this year.
Musk declared not to be aware of the details of the situation. He added that the rules in India for what can appear on social media are strict, and companies like Twitter must comply with the country’s laws.
In January, the Indian government instructed the blocking of a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Modi, including clips via social media. In fact, the government ordered Twitter to block over 50 tweets linking to the video of the documentary. While the documentary was not aired in India, it was uploaded to some YouTube channels.
Elon Musk sat down for an impromptu interview with the BBC at Twitter headquarters. The conversation comes after the BBC put in the request two days ago to remove the Twitter assigned label as ‘gov-funded media’. The broadcaster is funded through the public licence fee, making it independent from state funding. Musk said that the label would be adjusted to ‘publicly funded’ as Twitter strives for accuracy.
BBC’s label is not the only one, as the US public broadcaster NPR has already been labelled as ‘state-affiliated media’ which was later changed to ‘gov-funded media’. It is unclear if the adjustment would be done for NPR as well.
Speaking about the general state of Twitter, Musk acknowledged issues ranging from technical issues of outages and difficulties since procuring the platform going as far as to say that he would sell ‘if a right person came along’. Mass layoffs, misinformation and Musk’s unorthodox leadership practice were also discussed.
This month the Committee of Experts on the integrity of online information (MSI-INF) held its first meeting. The Committee is composed of 13 members, comprising seven member States’ representatives, designated by the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI), and six independent experts, appointed by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The committee members have recognised expertise in topics related to freedom of expression and information, online information environment and digital platform economy and design. During this year, the Committee of Experts will work on a draft guidance note on countering the spread of online mis- and disinformation through fact-checking and platform design solutions in a human rights compliant manner.
Forty-five international organisations signed a communication to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) urging them to withdraw or reconsider proposed regulations for digital media, social media, and over-the-top (OTT) platforms. The draft is dated October 2021 but was published on 6 February 2022. Stating that ‘The Draft Regulations seek to implement a content governance framework devoid of adequate judicial oversight, clarity and predictability, and integration of human rights and due process,’ the letter details eleven initial key concerns that require discussion.
