Audiovisual Communication Law youtubers streamers tiktokers - Competition once again asks that the new Law on Audiovisual Communication regulate 'youtubers', 'streamers' or 'tiktokers' explicitly.

The new General Law on Audiovisual Communication will transpose a European directive, although it will be late. Brussels already dispatched Spain in November last year for being behind. After a first attempt at the end of 2020, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation presented a new draft law and a new public hearing at the end of June for the standard.

Now, the National Market and Competition Commission has launched a new report in which it analyzes the most relevant changes of the new draft, such as the reform of the financing system of the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation.

According to the new document, the rest of free and pay-tv channels, but also video-on-demand platforms such as video sharing platforms, whether in Spain or in another European Union country (and providing service in Spain), will be financed by state television.

Audiovisual Communication Law youtubers streamers tiktokers

But the report, which you can consult here, also focuses on shortcomings that have not yet been incorporated into the preliminary draft. Competition recalls that it already detailed these demonstrations in a previous report published in December 2020 and "have not been incorporated into the version submitted to this second hearing".

Among those observations that " have not been incorporated "are, for example, a definition of"audiovisual media service providers that are supported on video exchange platforms". In short: content creators. Streamers, tiktokers or youtubers.

"Competition insists on the desirability of the express inclusion of these providers in the Law so that instead of applying the regulatory framework in a generic way, it is adjusted to their peculiarities", emphasizes the regulatory body.

Agency, which also insists that the modification of the General Law of Audiovisual Communication comes "in very specific and very changing market conditions and access and consumption of audiovisual content". "New types of content, such as short videos or user-generated content, are increasingly important," referring to formats like TikTok.

Audiovisual Communication Law youtubers streamers tiktokers

"In addition, new modalities of audiovisual services have emerged, such as certain audiovisual communication service providers that are supported on video sharing platforms, such as influencers or opinion prescribers, whose contents are accessed through platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram or Twitch," he details.

For this reason, Competencia understands that" the emergence "and" consolidation "of these" new agents operating on the internet "requires an"updated legal framework that reflects market progress and that allows achieving a balance between access to online content services, consumer protection and competition".

The argument of Competition is neither unprecedented. Not only did he repeat it in his first report, published before the first draft version at the end of 2020. It is a thesis shared by other organizations, such as the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia (CAC). The president of this Council, Roger Loppacher, already explained why it was necessary to regulate these influencers.

In this article, Loppacher claimed how the Council had already investigated the case of several content creators on TikTok who did not properly identify their publications launched for commercial or advertising purposes. That public complaint supported a lawsuit filed by a European federation of consumer organizations, BEUC, last year against this Chinese social network.

Audiovisual Communication Law youtubers streamers tiktokers

Just a few weeks ago Naim Darrechi, the most followed Spanish tiktoker (26 million followers in the app, adding its audience in Latin America) starred in a controversy after explaining in an interview with another well-known content creator that he tricked his sexual partners not to use condom.

Soon after, Darrechi himself came to the fore of criticism, claiming that it was not true, that he played a character, and that there was a possibility that he had used those words to attract the attention of politicians, from whom he demanded regulation and a "committee of influencers". He did so after the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, announced that she would inform the Prosecutor's Office of the young man's comment.

"The government does not want to realize that we are such an important means of communication that they now use us to get votes. So, if you use us to get votes, at least support the community, that there is a committee of influencers, that things are regulated, that there are rules such as there are on TV, in the newspaper or on the radio", defended then the influencer.

It is, neither more nor less, what Europe is seeking to regulate and what the National Market and Competition Commission itself proposes for the draft General Law on Audiovisual Communication.