European Union: Adopted European Media Freedom Act including user speech right by Council

On 26 March 2024, the Council of the European Union adopted the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which aims to increase and promote transparency regarding media ownership while introducing safeguards for editorial independence and media pluralism. The EMFA introduces, among other things, safeguards against the "unjustified removal" of content produced by media services providers that meet the "editorial standards" in the Member state in which the provider is established. The EMFA requires very large platforms, defined in the Digital Service Act as platforms with over 45 million users in the European Union, to notify the media service provider of their terms of service violations and provide the reasons for content removal before deleting it from their platform. Platforms would be required to give media service providers 24 hours or less in case of emergency to respond before deleting the content. Furthermore, the very large platforms will be required to process the complaints received from media service providers and issue an annual report outlining the number of restrictions imposed on media service providers. The regulation will enter into force 20 days following its publication in the Official Journal.