The Report on current policies and regulatory frameworks for social media and content convergence: information disorder, human rights and regulatory implications (D2.1) provides a comprehensive insight into regulatory and governance initiatives addressing the human rights concerns related to information disorder in social media and a better understanding of the regulatory and governance implications, including their potential impact on the fragmentation of the single market. The information is prepared by the team of the COMPACT project (http://compact-media.eu/). COMPACT is a Coordination and Support Action funded European Commission under framework Horizon 2020. The objective of the COMPACT project is to increase awareness (including scientific, political, cultural, legal, economic and technical areas) of the latest technological discoveries among key stakeholders in the context of social media and convergence. The project will offer analyses and road maps of related initiatives. In addition, extensive research on policies and regulatory frameworks in media and content will be developed.

1. COMPACT PROJECT
Bringing Social Media and Traditional Media Together
Deliverable:
D2.1: Report on current policies and regulatory
frameworks
1

2. COMPACT H2020 Project
• The information is prepared by the team of
the COMPACT project (http://compact-media.eu/).
• COMPACT is a Coordination and Support Action funded
EuropeanCommission under framework Horizon 2020.
• The objective of the COMPACT project is to increase
awareness (including scientific, political, cultural, legal,
economic and technical areas) of the latest
technological discoveries among key stakeholders in
the context of social media and convergence.The
project will offer analyses and road maps of related
initiatives. In addition, extensive research on policies
and regulatory frameworks in media and content will
be developed.
2

3. Consortium
3

4. Consortium
Participant No
*
Participant organisation name Country
1 (Lead) National University of Ireland (NUI) Ireland
2 School of Communication and Media, n.o. (SCM) Slovakia
3 DATA d.o.o. (DAT) Slovenia
4 The European Digital SME Alliance (EDA) Belgium
5 Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BAS) Bulgaria
6 Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) Slovenia
7 Ontotext Corp (ONT) Bulgaria
8
NGO Agency of European Innovations (AEI)
https://aei.org.ua/
Ukraine
9 Media 21 Foundation (M21) Bulgaria
10 UNIVERSIDADE CATOLICA PORTUGUESA (RCC) Portugal
11 Partnership for Social Development (PSD) Croatia
12 IT Forum (ITF) Denmark
13 The University of Latvia (UL) Latvia
14
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy
(ELI)
Greece
15 Mediaframe Ltd. (MF) UK

5. Summary
5
The Report on current policies and regulatory frameworks for social media and content
convergence: information disorder, human rights and regulatory implications (D2.1) provides a
comprehensive insight into regulatory and governance initiatives addressing the human rights
concerns related to information disorder in social media and a better understanding of the
regulatory and governance implications, including their potential impact on fragmentation of the
single market.
One of the contributions of the project is a tool for assessing existing governance frameworks on
the basis on an agreed set of requirements and with reference to existing standards, which was
originally designed for the purpose of the research carried out in preparation of this report. The
analysis was carried out in 11 EU Member States, and the methodology was piloted in 71
initiatives. The initiatives of the following countries were included in the study: Belgium, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and UK.

6. Summary
6
This study presents and summarizes the most important findings and categorizes them by specific
methodological criteria within the framework developed here. The structured summary of the
key findings is complemented by recommendations addressing both the analysis criteria and the
adequate stakeholders. All the work here is presented through the lens of the fundamental rights
and the regulatory implications of the analysed issues. Important to note is that they are based
on the current dataset collected in 11 EU Member States in the period of May-September 2018.
Therefore, this is not the exhaustive set of recommendations to be produced by WP2 within the
COMPACT project. The complete overview and rationale of the overall recommendations set will
be provided in D2.3 Report, after the survey is extended to all current EU Member states (i.e. 28)
and the governance initiatives related to information disorder available in all these countries are
analysed.

7. Summary
7
The study analysed a varied range of information governance initiatives covering different issues
related to information disorder. The results show that most of the initiatives currently active are
of a national type, indicating a serious lack of trans-border collaboration and impact. One
important insight is that most of the activities are being performed by non-governmental or civil
society actors, while there is a lack of initiatives involving the industry. In addition, digital rights
advocacy and gender issues are largely unrepresented among the stakeholders, to an extent that
there is a complete lack of this aspect within the initiatives’ activities. Despite the importance of
multi-stakeholder approaches, the share of one-stakeholder initiatives is significantly high and
are the most representative of the governance models currently existing in the examined
countries. The lack of employing technology and the minimal technological and policy impact per
se reveal an important space for improvements and innovation. Moreover, the lack of networking
platforms for dissemination and collaboration purposes points to a clear direction to be taken for
improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the initiatives’ work.

8. Summary
8
Spread in a multi-stakeholder community, this report will have two-fold contribution: on the one
hand it will raise the awareness on the shared challenges and opportunities among the industry,
users, policymakers and other important stakeholders; on the other hand, it will help stakeholder
gain familiarity with the good practices in the field and the extent to which there is a unification
of the regulatory approaches in the context of information disorder.

9. CONTENTS
9
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
Purpose
Scope
Structure
Target audience of the report
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Social media and content convergence
Information disorder
EU framework initiatives
Socio-economic implications
Fundamental rights
Regulation, governance and regulatory implications
Statutory regulation
Self-regulation
Co-regulation
Governance
Transparency and Accountability
METHODOLOGY
Conceptual framework
The Wardle-Derakhshan conceptual framework for information disorder
General Systems Theory (GST) Principles
Choice of Fundamental Rights
EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK
EU baseline
The Combined Survey Tool
Data gathering

10. CONTENTS
10
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR CONTEXT ASSESSMENT
Baseline
Scope
Type of information disorder
Stakeholders
Regulatory analysis
Empirical analysis
Scope
Type of information disorder
Stakeholders
Regulatory analysis
CONCEPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION
Baseline
Openness
Objectives
Monitoring and Evaluation
Conflict resolution mechanisms
Financing scheme
Technology exploitation
Challenges
Empirical analysis
Openness
Objectives
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
Conflict resolution mechanisms (CRMs)
Financing scheme
Technology exploitation
Challenges

11. CONTENTS
11
RESULTS AND EVALUATION
Baseline
Impact
Dedicated methods for raising awareness
Evaluation
Empirical analysis
Impact
Dedicated methods for raising public awareness
Evaluation
ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLAINT RESOLUTION
Baseline
Sanctions
Complaints resolution
Remedy and redress
Empirical analysis
Sanctions
Complaints resolution
Remedy and redress
STATUTORY SUPPORT
Baseline
Empirical analysis
Formal recognition of the initiatives’ self- and co-regulatory practices
Incentives for participation in the scheme
Supervision of the implementation
The State as a financer

12. CONTENTS
12
KEY FINDINGS
Context assessment
Conception and Implementation
Results and evaluation
Enforcement and complaint resolution
Statutory support
RECOMMENDATIONS
Context assessment
Conception and Implementation
Results and evaluation
Enforcement and complaint resolution
Statutory support
Industry stakeholders
Institutional stakeholders
Non-governmental stakeholders
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
Table X. Baseline for regulatory landscape analysis at EU Level
List of the processed initiatives (by country)

13. FULL DOCUMENT
13
Available on the COMPACT project website.
At the link: http://compact-media.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/D2.1-
Report-on-current-policies-and-regulatory-frameworks.pdf