By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -&nbsp;EU&nbsp;lawmakers&nbsp;on Tuesday voted for draft rules targeting Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms and other large online platforms'&nbsp;content&nbsp;moderation restrictions after some&nbsp;media&nbsp;outlets complained about arbitrary&nbsp;decisions&nbsp;removing their&nbsp;content.
The draft rules require online platforms to carry news&nbsp;content&nbsp;for 24 hours before taking it down if this breaches their&nbsp;content&nbsp;moderation rules.
Known as Article 17 of the&nbsp;Media&nbsp;Freedom Act the&nbsp;European Commission proposed last year to ensure&nbsp;media&nbsp;plurality and safeguard editorial independence, the clause has raised alarm bells among online platforms.
Media&nbsp;should "be notified of the platform's intention to delete or restrict their&nbsp;content&nbsp;alongside a 24-hour window for the&nbsp;media&nbsp;to respond",&nbsp;lawmakers&nbsp;said in a statement. The platform can delete, restrict or refer the case to national regulators after the 24-hour period if it is still&nbsp;against&nbsp;platform terms and conditions.
Tech lobbying group CCIA&nbsp;Europe, whose members include Google, Meta and X, said Article 17 could be exploited by some to spread disinformation.
"The&nbsp;media&nbsp;exemption will empower rogue actors, creating new loopholes to spread fake news rather than fixing anything," CCIA&nbsp;Europe's senior policy manager Mathilde Adjutor said in a statement.
Lawmakers&nbsp;voted to ban using spyware&nbsp;against&nbsp;journalists unless it can be justified as a last resort measure and also require&nbsp;media&nbsp;to be transparent about their ownership.
The&nbsp;lawmakers&nbsp;will have to thrash out details of the proposed rules with&nbsp;EU&nbsp;countries in the coming months before these can be adopted.
Concerns about political interference in&nbsp;media&nbsp;outlets are mounting ahead of crucial elections in Poland this month and the&nbsp;European Parliament next year.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Josie Kao)

you might like

EU lawmakers back tough media law against Big Tech's content removal decisions