Media freedom on VLOPs: DSA’s regulatory expectations vs social media platforms’ (mis)understanding of public interest content

That freedom and pluralism of the media should be respected affirms both the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). It is also well understood that the watchdog function of the media, namely scrutiny of public and political affairs and imparting matters of public interest, contributes to justifying the media’s broad freedom. Yet, social media platforms, despite being the main source of online news, do not seem to recognize the value of media and media freedom. In this article, I first look at the link between media and public interest content. Second, I explore the DSA’s expectations towards freedom and pluralism of the media on the very large online platforms (VLOPs). I argue that the concept of having a “due regard” to media freedom and systemic risks mitigation measures could be understood as aiming to protect and promote public interest content on VLOPs. Third, I turn to three social media platforms: Meta, X (previously Twitter) and TikTok to explore their approach to public interest content. I analyse definitions, criteria, decision-making process, and operationalization of public interest exceptions. I conclude that these public interest exceptions do not recognize the value of media, and follow an ad-hoc ‘leave uptake down’ content moderation logic. I then offer forward-looking conclusions.