Agcom, beacon of influencers similar to TV and video on demand broadcasters

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Transparency on advertising; child protection obligations; corporate transparency obligations; obligations in terms of pluralism and non-discrimination. And it could even lead to investment obligations in audiovisual productions /even if here, it must be said, there are upstream criteria that would end up sterilizing this possibility). These are the new obligations for influencers being studied by Agcom. Who consulted a text “on the measures to ensure compliance by influencers with the provisions of the Consolidated Law on audiovisual media services”.

Like TV and video on demand

Great influencers therefore like TV. With a lot of obligations to be respected just like television broadcasters do. Agcom announced the launch of a public consultation which should lead to the drafting of the “Guidelines”. The duration of the public consultation will be 60 days from the publication of the resolution (being published but not yet published).

Content producers

All starting from the awareness that the world of communication is populated – and perhaps dominated for some age groups – by “influencers”, but also “vloggers”, “streamers” or “creators” who, writes Agcom in its statement «create , produce and disseminate audiovisual content to the public – over which they exercise editorial responsibility – via video sharing platforms and, in general, via social media». A phenomenon too widespread to be left to the natural evolution of things given, on the other hand, the obligations to which audiovisual media service providers have already been subjected for some time.

The distinction within influencers

Here Agcom wanted to intervene with a distinction. On the one hand, the reality of «subjects that offer audiovisual contents on a continuous basis must be considered, with a method of offering and organizing them such as to make them superimposable on a catalog of an on-demand media service (for example, YouTube channels ). For these subjects it will therefore be appropriate to apply all the obligations set out in the Consolidated Law, including, by way of example, registration in the ROC, the discipline in matters of European and independent works, the SCIA (certified notification of the start of )”. On the other hand, there are the “subjects who operate in a less continuous and structured manner, to whom, on the other hand, the application in its entirety of the legal regime envisaged for on-demand audiovisual media services does not appear justified”.

The need for a regulatory update

Therefore, concludes Agcom «an extension of the legal and regulatory framework is reconcilable with the nature of the influencers due to the nature of the activity performed by them and the overlapping of the same with the supply of an audiovisual media service. The Authority therefore intends, with the launch of the aforementioned public consultation, to identify a clear and transparent framework of the provisions applicable also to influencers, ensuring, however, not to foresee unnecessary bureaucratic burdens”.