Media Intermediaries

Media intermediaries are influential propagators and mediators of information with paramount importance when it comes to forming and diversifying opinions. They act as "gatekeepers". These services have therefore been under particular scrutiny by the legislator within the framework of the digital regulations and have become the target audience for comprehensive transparency, notification and labelling requirements. This has triggered a need for large scale action to be taken to ensure that online services are designed in a legally compliant manner owing to either existing or newly created complaint and fine procedures. The Digital Services Act (DSA) brings with it additional duties. 

Media intermediaries filter the internet content on offer by using search and selection algorithms and display these in a certain order, for example, in user news feeds. Intermediaries have therefore been subject to special transparency requirements and non-discrimination rules since the P2B Regulation and the German State Media Treaty (MStV) came into force. The new legal framework for the digital world is intended to reflect media intermediaries' responsibility towards users and competitors, and ensure transparency, fairness and the creation of complaint mechanisms, e.g. by labelling social bots and political advertising. The journalistic duty of care requirements, which previously mainly only related to analogue print media, now also apply to digital services.

Questions that may arise in the context of the digital regulations for media intermediaries include:

• What companies fall within the scope of the regulations?
• How can media intermediaries achieve compliance in terms of transparency and fairness?
• Who is affected by the journalistic editorial duties of care?
• Who is subject to (subsequent) notification requirements?
• What should be taken into account and, if necessary, disclosed when presenting a ranking and the main parameters of an algorithm as a decision-making system, bot postings and advertising postings?
• What complaint management systems should be in place?
• What other requirements will media intermediaries face in the future?
• What business models are affected?