Hi all!
The European Parliament is off on its summer break and won’t be back until the end of August. Other institutions are also winding down for the next few weeks. Here’s a last update of what was achieved in the last weeks and where we will pick up in September.
Dimi & Michele
=== EMFA ===
Some updates concerning the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which is an attempt to foster pluralism and journalistic independence across the EU. Council adopted its general approach last June, Parliament is actively working to swiftly adopt its position (the vote in plenary should take place in October). The Internal Market Committee (IMCO has shared competence on the whole text) and Civil Liberties Committees (LIBE has exclusive competence on Articles 4(2) and 20(3)) adopted their respective opinions. On 18 July, shadow rapporteurs in the Culture and Education Committee (CULT is the lead committee) struck a deal on the text and agreed to maintain the original schedule of the vote, which is foreseen for the next 7th of September.
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The focus of our attention is on Article 17 of the proposal that aims at introducing the so-called "media exemption". The different political groups tabled several amendments and some had the result to include Wikipedia within the scope of this Article by deleting the reference to "online intermediation services" or adding a reference to DSA provisions. We informed lawmakers of the effect of their changes and a clarification was added in a recital which shadow rapporteurs agreed to include it. At the end of August, there will be a technical meeting to formalise all recitals including the one containing the carveout. Of course, the original definition, as proposed by the Commission and the Council, remains our main preference. We hope this recital remains a secondary safety net.
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In addition, we signed two letters addressed to the LIBE Committee MEPs asking for a complete ban on the possible use of spyware against journalists (you may find them here and here).
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If Parliament manages to adopt its position in October, as it seems the case, trilogue negotiations will start immediately after. The goal of lawmakers isto approve the new law before the end of the term and ahead of European elections that will take place in June 2024.
=== Political Advertising Regulation ===
Negotiations on this important piece of legislation, that aims to frame clear rules for political advertising online across the block, have been halted given that Parliament and Council could not find an agreement on the use of sensitive data in targeting and micro-targeting techniques. The Spanish Presidency seems not ready to resume negotiations immediately despite its position being closer to the one of Parliament. Speculations suggest that negotiations will restart only in October. It is therefore unclear if the new regulation will be adopted before the end of the term and will be applied during the 2024 EU elections.
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Wikimedia projects should be safely out of scope of this file, but this can sometimes quickly change as lawmakers make edits to the definitions. Wikimedia also cares about privacy and worries about the tracking of users online. These are the two aspects we concentrate on within this file.
=== SLAPP Case Against Wikipedia in Portugal ===
In an ongoing lawsuit, the court in Portugal ordered the Wikimedia Foundation to delete well-sourced, publicly available and relevant information about a notable person, and to disclose user data. We believe this is a so-called SLAPP case and incompatible with EU law, including the Digital Services Act currently being implemented.g. The Wikimedia Foundation is appealing and hasn’t provided any data in this case.
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The European Union is currently debating a proposed “anti-SLAPP Directive” - full title Directive on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings.
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We are making sure that lawmakers involved in these procedures are aware of of the Portuguese case, as well as the case involving User:Kruusamägi in Estonia.
=== France’s Tech Bill Regulating The Online Environment ===
France is working on a tech bill to regulate the entire online environment. More precisely the projet de loi visant à sécuriser et réguler l’espace numérique (SREN).
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There are several problematic articles and aspects in the proposal that would change how content moderation on our projects works. Such examples are provisions aiming to keep links to “banned” media off websites (think Russia Today) or an obligation to not allow banned users from re-registering (which would require some sort of background check on all new registrations).
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Wikimédia France, Wikimedia Europe and the Wikimedia Foundation are coordinating on this. We are also checking in with like-minded organisations and other online projects and exploring possible collaborations. The French legislator will resume its activities in September.
=== Summer Reading: Italy Crusade Against the Public Domain ===
Recently the Republic of Italy is going out of its way to restrict and get paid for re-use of public domain material. As any good tale, the stories are scary and silly at the same time. We recommend this post by Deborah De Angelis and Giuditta Giardini, as well as the case-specific articles about The Uffizi vs. Jean Paul Gaultier and The Vitruvian Man & Ravensburger puzzles.