Faisal Al-Shboul said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia” that the members of the Executive Office of Arab Ministers of Information, drawn from the Conference of Arab Ministers of Information, unanimously approved the plan in last March in Kuwait.
Jordanian commitment
He explains that Jordan, during the previous session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Information, held in Cairo last September, pledged to present an integrated plan and an Arab orientation bill to deal with international media, protect users and regulate digital broadcasting. digital platforms and taxes.
And it shows that the strategic plan included cooperation and coordination to do justice to the content related to Arab issues that these platforms program their algorithms to show or hide.
He explained that the pilot project of the Arab strategy for dealing with international media companies takes into account the specificities of Arab countries and defends Arab issues, first and foremost the Palestinian question, Islamophobia and other important issues, such as hate speech, incitement to violence, moral issues and societal values.
Justice for Arab Issues
The Jordanian minister indicates that the plan is divided into several axes, the first of which is equity towards Arab and Islamic issues with “legitimate right” and equality with other issues, which these platforms program their algorithms to implement. highlight or hide content linked to them. , within the framework of international law and international standards.
Protect children
As for the second axis, its essence lies in the protection of children, who constitute the most vulnerable group in societies, given the numerous negative propaganda to which they are exposed on these platforms without the presence of age groups eligible for use of social media, and limiting children’s exposure to immoral or age-inappropriate content.
This includes scenes containing violent scenes or hate speech, invasions of privacy, etc. This also includes legislation that holds parents responsible for falsifying a child’s age range in the case they commit a crime on these platforms, according to Al-Shboul.
Save media right
He says the last axis is related to preserving the right of local Arab media for each country to advertise, in a way that applies to their duty to provide spaces for constructive discussion.
And he adds: “These platforms have acquired large advertising shares at the expense of the media, and that any advertising inside any country is aimed at a local audience for these countries, which gives the legislator the right to recover part of these revenues and to redistribute them to the media with a specific mechanism that guarantees everyone’s rights, either by distributing annual aid to local media, or by concluding agreements with these companies and allowing the media, depending on the content that they broadcast on these mediums, and earn revenue within a clear agreed time frame.
The Jordanian minister cited an official local study, which found that US$116 million went out from the media in favor of these platforms, despite the fact that the Jordanian media market is a narrow market for the media, for example. compared to the rest of the Arab and international countries.
Al-Shboul explained that most countries in the world tend to enter into agreements with digital platforms to preserve media rights, pointing out that Jordan has benefited from previous experiences in its plan, the most important of which was the Agreement. European (Unified European Digital Services Law), and the German model, considered the best model in this field. It also ensures that the work of digital broadcasting platforms is regulated and that digital taxes are dealt with.
The next step
The Jordanian minister reveals: “This plan will see the light of day, and official communications will be initiated with all these platforms and search engines (Google, Facebook, Snapchat…) by an Arab team which will be constituted in the event of the approval of the Council of Arab Ministers of Information, to be held in Rabat in June.
He favored the ease of concluding agreements with these companies and platforms, given the availability of the team and the plan, while emphasizing that the vision and objective are clear, which paves the way for the necessary steps.
New starting point
For his part, the Jordanian journalist Ahmed Al-Zaboun explains that Jordan has endeavored over the last decade to study many options to regulate the work of social communication, and to reduce the serious violations committed in its areas, but she finally stopped her plan. .
And the client confirms, in his interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that the plan is reviving paper newspapers in the Arab world, most of which are dying and have started to release their hard copies, especially with the existence of provisions that oblige international media companies to pay for a portion of advertisements, which is a fresh start amid the hurdles of the huge economy the media are facing as a result of the Corona pandemic.
It should be noted that the plan did not only deal with economic issues with international companies; He instead tackled the problem of fake news and hate speech, the frequency of which has increased in the country in recent times, but the plan includes financial sanctions against these companies if the fake news is not removed.
He recalls the issue of the blocking of the “Tik Tok” platform, which has been suspended in the Kingdom for more than four months, due to the spread of hate speech and the failure to remove content that violates Jordanian law.
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
