Hello!
With the European Parliament elections a week away we are keeping an eye on the tech priorities candidates bring up. We are also taking the time to pay more attention to national level developments and initiatives. Here, France is once again a major preoccupation.
Dimi & Michele
=== France: Loi SREN ===
On 21 May 2024, the French Parliament adopted the final text of the law aiming at securing and regulating the digital space (so-called SREN) https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000049563368. The law is the result of a compromise reached in the Joint Mixed Committee (Commission Mixte Paritaire), a body that unites lawmakers from both chambers of parliament.
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The law had been postponed several times, as the European Commission objected to it for contradicting the Digital Services Act. Formally, the new law takes into account the remarks the European Commission sent to France within the Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) https://technical-regulation-information-system.ec.europa.eu/en/notification/24221, a notification procedure where Member States have to inform the European Commission when “touching” EU law nationally. Wikimedia Europe, among others, also contributed feedback as part of this procedure https://technical-regulation-information-system.ec.europa.eu/en/notification/24221/stakeholder-contribution/file/3481 .
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Wikimedia's grievances https://medium.com/wikimedia-policy/wikipedia-will-be-harmed-by-frances-proposed-sren-bill-legislators-should-avoid-unintended-45d46a4b773c are versatile, but included impossibly short removal deadlines and a provision to not allow already banned users to re-register, which would in practice require to check all new users and hence collect more data on everyone by default.
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Before being promulgated, the Constitutional Court was seized by some MPs and in result removed certain aspects of the new law. One little improvement is that it censored the introduction of a new criminal offence called “online contempt” (délit d’outrage en ligne), which could have been used very elastically even by malicious actors.
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As part of this procedure, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimédia France submitted an amicus brief https://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/sites/default/files/as/root/bank_mm/decisions/2024866dc/2024866dc_contributions.pdf to the Constitutional Court, but the majority of the remarks were not examined by the judges. These included very tight deadlines (24 & 72 hours of takedown orders), gag orders & reporting obligations to combat a list of crimes, which goes far beyond the DSA.
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Wikimedia Europe and the Wikimedia Foundation are working on providing further feedback to the European Commission, as a follow-up to the TRIS procedure. The Commission has several choices to make now. It could open an infringement procedure against France if it believes the SREN law goes against the new DSA rules and puts the internal market at risk. There are also discussions in France on whether the Constitutional Court should be petitioned again under a different procedure.
=== Switzerland: Parliamentary Event ===
Wikimedia CH is organising an information event https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TnF4dG-7czk1OKWCe8_NNDOxwNF7vJ0M/view?usp=sharing with Parldigi at the Swiss Federal Parliament in Bern on 3 June. The idea is to present both WMCH, the Wikimedia movement and our projects to Swiss parliamentarians and staff. Jenny Ebermann jenny.ebermann@wikimedia.ch from WMCH and Dimi from WMEU will speak.
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Parldigi https://www.parldigi.ch/fr/ is a parliamentary group that gathers members of parliament and stakeholder organisations interested in digital sustainability. Wikimedia CH is a member and can thus more easily organise such events.
=== Sweden: Public Consultation on Copyright Limitations ===
After being part of a public inquiry on copyright exceptions and limitations https://www.regeringen.se/remisser/2024/02/remiss-av-betankandet-inskrankningarna-i-upphovsratten-sou-20244/, Wikimedia Sverige had the opportunity to provide input https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Sverige_Remissvar_SOU_2024_4_%E2%80%93_Ju2024_00120_%28st%C3%B6ds_av_DFRI,_CC_och_OKFN%29.pdf on the proposed bill updating Swedish copyright law.
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In its input, Wikimedia Sverige focuses on a modernisation of the freedom of panorama (FoP) provision, after losing a case around FoP in the Supreme Court in 2016, and on a better legal environment for research and cultural heritage institutions, among e.g. in regard to digitisation and AI development.
===Wikimedia Foundation & DSA ===
The Wikimedia Foundation is required under the DSA to designate a legal representative in one EU jurisdiction at which point the national regulator will work alongside the European Commission to supervise the DSA compliance of the projects. This month the WMF designated Verasafe Netherlands to act in that capacity, which makes the Markets and Consumers regulator of the Netherlands (ACM) https://www.acm.nl/en/authority-consumers-and-markets the Digital Services Coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation.
=== Ireland: Content Moderation ===
The Irish platform regulator, the Coimisiún na Meán has shared a draft online safety code https://y3r710.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fdmp.politico.eu%2F%3Femail=politico-berthelemy@edri.org%26destination=https:%2F%2Fwww.cnam.ie%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2FOnline-Safety-Code_vFinal.pdf/1/0102018fbd956825-36da40a7-0827-4fa2-855a-edaf1d3399fd-000000/b3sedBhWlD_1tO5aKWpBuRSipK0=375 for video-sharing platforms that have their EU headquarters in Ireland. The future binding code would put into force rules from the DSA and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). The European Commission now has several months to react to it.
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The draft foresees platforms to provide parental controls and use some sort of age verification mechanism to control what content children can see. YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform “based” in Ireland for EU law purposes.
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We are monitoring this, as age-gating is a complicated subject for our projects, yet it is demanded by more and more lawmakers globally. Also, we need to maintain in future legislations and reforms (the AVMSD will be re-opened soon) that Wikimedia Commons is seen as a distinct category of platform and not grouped with dedicated, commercial video-sharing services.
=== Bans in the EU ===
The Council of the EU banned the broadcasting https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/05/17/russia-s-war-of-aggression-against-ukraine-council-bans-broadcasting-activities-in-the-european-union-of-four-more-russia-associated-media-outlets/ activities of further four Russian channels, Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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France banned TikTok in New Caledonia https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2024/05/17/la-quadrature-du-net-takes-legal-action-against-the-french-governments-censorship-of-tiktok-in-new-caledonia/ making use of the modified law on the “state of emergency”
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While the former is covered by EU law, as confirmed by the Court of Justice of the EU, its practical efficiency remains questionable. At the same time, it raises some related questions, as to how these sources might still be used, for instance for the purposes of criticism and historical record-keeping. France’s ban is being challenged in French courts.
=== What to expect immediately after the EU elections ===
The first thing we will be following in Brussels is the strength and constitution of parliamentary groups. There are always a number of national parties that can join one or another group and hence shift weights. Will Movimiento 5 Stelle of Italy remain non-inscrit (non-aligned) or join a group? Where will a number of German and Spanish MEPs from smaller parties join? Will the far-right group(s) re-group?
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One question is whether the centre-right (EPP), the liberals (Renew) and the social democrats (S&D) will have a comfortable, workable majority. If their majority is slim, this will force them to work closer with either the ECR (Georgia Meloni’s and the Czech Prime Minister's group, which is further right, but not the far-right group) or the Greens group.
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After the elections the Commission President will need to be elected by the new parliament. There will be hearings. The President then gets two candidates for Commissioner presented by each Member State government. She or he can then assemble the Commission college (names and portfolios). Each Commissioner is individually heard by the European Parliament and needs to be confirmed by a vote. The Parliament has on several occasions rejected candidate Commissioners, which force the respective national government to nominate another candidate.
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Another thing we will be listening for is committee assignments in the Parliament and agenda-setting. We know that German christian democrat Axel Voss wants to continue working on the AI Liability Act, while Danish social democrat Christel Schaldemose wants social media not to allow users under a certain age on their platforms. These are the kind of signals we take note of.
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