The Council of Arab Information Ministers, in its fifty-third regular session, held in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, approved, on Wednesday, the unified Arab strategy for dealing with international media companies “social media platforms”, which was prepared by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and commissioned by the Council of Arab Information Ministers.

The Council also approved, based on the recommendation of the Minister of Government Communication and official spokesperson for the government, Faisal Al-Shboul, the formation of an Arab technical team to negotiate with international media companies, headed by Jordan and with the membership of: Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, and the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Information Ministers. The Arabs and the Arab States Broadcasting Union, provided that the team holds its first meeting next July in Amman; To develop an action plan and negotiation mechanism with these companies.

The strategy, which won Arab support in all the committees discussed and presented to it, includes a strategy paper and an integrated vision, and a unified Arab guiding draft law to regulate the work of social media and protect Arab media and the public of users, in addition to an Arab guiding draft law to prevent hate speech.

The Special Committee to develop an executive action plan for the unified Arab media strategy to deal with international media companies had met at the outset of the 53rd session of the Council of Arab Information Ministers, the day before yesterday, Monday, and approved the executive mechanism contained in the strategy submitted by Jordan in this regard, and also agreed to form An Arab working group, headed by Jordan, to implement its provisions.

The strategy, when implemented, in accordance with the decision of the Council of Arab Ministers of Information, prioritizes its development in accordance with the developments and modernization requirements witnessed by the media and communication sector and its modern tools, in addition to observing the regulations and laws governing the Arab countries, in a way that achieves a convergent Arab base, legislative and tax, that helps protect Arabic content. And Arab users and achieving lost profit for the Arab media as a result of the use of its content by international media companies.

The strategy, presented by Jordan after examining international, especially European, experiences in this field, is based on a set of principles that emphasize the importance of social media and its positive role in communication and public debate, and the importance of protecting these means and their users from hate speech, and the public space from content. harmful, and criminalizing the act in the digital space as it is criminalized in actual reality.

The strategy also sets in its axes and objectives provisions based on the principle of fairness to Palestinian content, combating all forms of digital hatred against Arabs and Muslims, and that what is published in the digital space of any Arab country is subject to the legislation of this country that defines illegal content in social media and digital platforms, in addition to that As with press and media laws, the responsibility for illegal content rests with the creator of the content and the platform that published it.

The unified Arab strategy applies to providers of services and multimedia media content aimed at profit, and includes Internet platforms and applications designed to enable users to share their content with other users, or to enable them to create or publish content available to the public. The provisions of the unified strategy apply to social media platforms that are The number of its users is 500,000 or more within the country enacting this law.

The strategy also deals with regulating digital broadcasting platforms that work with Streaming technology and method, such as OTT applications and IPTV services that provide their content digitally over the Internet, so that the viewing process takes place on-demand, and does not broadcast its content according to a fixed schedule, and provides the content for a fee paid by the viewer in the form of periodic subscription. Or when in use, as platforms: Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+. It does not apply to platforms, social media and Internet technologies that provide journalistic content or reflect a journalistic, media or editorial point of view.

The strategy came at the initiative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which submitted proposals regarding the need to regulate the work of social media companies. During the 52nd session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Information, which was held in Cairo last September, an Arab committee was formed to prepare a comprehensive Arab strategy and benefit from international experiences. Jordan worked , Chairman of the Committee, to prepare a detailed strategy that was carried out after visits, observations and exposure to international experiences in Germany and Australia in particular, and European legislation in general.

After extensive Arab deliberations and discussion, the Executive Office of the Council, at its meeting in Kuwait in March of this year, welcomed the strategy presented by the Minister of Government Communication, before the consultative meeting of the Executive Office, to be presented at the meeting of the Council of Arab Ministers of Information in Rabat in its current (53rd) session, where it was approved by the Council. Among the decisions issued by its session.

According to the strategy, international media companies – social media, are committed to providing clear channels for reporting illegal content, and to providing legal representation for social media companies and platforms in the Arab countries. He shall be notified of the legal measures taken in accordance with this strategy. These companies should also empower human cadres and find technical capabilities to deal with complaints, and delete the obviously illegal content within (24) hours of the complaint, and the unclear content of its illegality within 7 days of the complaint.

The strategy also provides for the protection of minor users, the non-use of technologies (algorithms) that obscure or limit the spread of content supporting the justice of the Palestinian cause and Al-Quds Al-Sharif, which does not constitute any other violations in accordance with international law, and the rapid cooperation by these companies with the official authorities in cases of health disasters. or security.

It provides for the empowerment of individual users or civil society groups defending the rights and interests of users, checking how to manage and organize content on digital platforms, and preventing users who repeat serious violations from attending, exploiting and publishing through these means.

The illegal content that the strategy deals with includes, but is not limited to: false and fake news and disinformation campaigns, especially those caused by a criminal act, campaigns to influence democratic electoral processes in a systematic and funded manner, publishing media and promotional propaganda for institutions prohibited by legislation, and encouraging acts and violations Threatening state security, publishing forged documents or falsifying data to be used as evidence, and disturbing societal peace.

Also, among the examples that the strategy addresses is the promotion of criminal, terrorist and extremist organizations, and the violation of privacy, including filming, publishing and hate speech; Such as insulting Arab and Islamic civilization, all faiths and religions, provoking sectarian, racist or sectarian strife, inciting hatred of minorities, linking terrorism to Arabs and Muslims, promoting Islamophobia, inciting violence and extremism, public incitement and threats to commit crimes, pornographic content, sexual exploitation or sexual exploitation of children.

As for the digital broadcasting platforms that provide digital content via the Internet, the strategy addresses the use of minor children for the content of these platforms and what they expose to viewers of content that is morally and ethically inappropriate for the Arab public or content against Arabs and Muslims. It contains Palestinian content or supportive of the Palestinian cause, in proportion to the size of other content in other languages, as well as how ads are displayed within the content of these platforms.

In the event that social media companies and platforms violate the provisions of this strategy, the penalty is a fine of no less than $100,000 and no more than $2 million, or a fine of up to 6 percent of the total revenues of social media operations internationally, whichever is higher, or temporary blocking. to social media until its status is corrected.

According to the strategy, the Arab countries committed to it pledge to direct any compensatory revenues they collect from social media platforms, digital broadcasting platforms, and search engines to efforts to spread media and informational knowledge and education, fight false and misleading news, support digital transformation initiatives in paper, radio and television media, and support the sustainability of non-public media ( not benefiting from government funding).

(compass)