‘The non-interference principle’: Debating online platforms’ treatment of editorial content in the European Union's Digital Services Act

Abstract

The article discusses the negotiations surrounding the treatment of journalistic content in relation to content regulation in the context of the European Union's Digital Services Act. News media organisations lobbied for a privileged treatment of editorial content from platforms’ content moderation systems during the Digital Services Act's negotiations in the European Parliament, which came to be known as ‘non-interference principle’. Although the principle did not make it to the final version of the Digital Services Act, a provision related to the respect of media pluralism and media freedom by platforms was added. This article draws data from in-depth interviews with stakeholders, as well as from an analysis of legal and communication documents. It aspires to shed light on the political-economic tensions that shaped the final version of Digital Services Act and how the European Union attempted to integrate the asymmetric relationship between news media and platforms in its regulatory agenda.