It was about time that the CNMC (National Markets and Competition Commission) take a first step aimed at regulating, in some way, the activities of content creators who, throughout the plethora of platforms currently in existence, carry out a professional activity that, because it is quite new, has until now remained in no man’s land, without having to respond to regulations to which other media are subject with which these content creators come to rival directly.
And today the Spanish regulator has finally taken a step in this direction, by opening a public consultation (bases of the consultation) with the title «Public consultation on the communication project publishing the criteria that the National Commission for Markets and Competition will take into account to identify providers of audiovisual communication services that are supported by video exchange platforms«.
Under such an extensive, and yet cryptic title, what we find is a text with which the CNMC wants to determine that youtubers, streamers, tiktokers and, in general, content creators who are generally referred to as vloggers, have to comply with a similar regulatory framework, at least in certain points, which already regulates the activities of other providers of audiovisual content, for the yes that multiple conditions have already been established in the past.
More specifically, the objective of the CNMC is for these content creators to be identified as «audiovisual communication service providers» and that, therefore, they have to face the same legal consequences as television networks and similar services.
We saw, just a couple of weeks ago, another action of the CNMC also directed towards the new platforms, at that time about influencers and their responsibility in advertising crypto assets. And the truth is that during all this time, there has been a great void with respect to content creators, which has made them an ideal channel for the dissemination of covert advertising campaigns, or that do not fit the determined parameters. for other media.
One of the great fears of the CNMC, as well as of other European regulators that have already acted in this regard, is that the content of platforms such as TikTok and Twitch can be used to carry out advertising campaigns especially aimed at children, a group that is especially protected because of how easily influenced they can be. With this first step, the CNMC lays the foundations for establishing a regulatory framework that prevents abuse in this and many other ways, as well as the unfair competition that the new media could be carrying out against the traditional ones.
