Tech and Journalism Crisis and Emergency Mechanism

Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) has launched the Tech and Journalism Crisis and Emergency Mechanism. Ukrainian media outlets will be able to use this mechanism to contest undeserved, in their opinion, limitations on social platforms owned by the company Meta and TikTok. The work of T&JM in Ukraine is coordinated by NGO Lviv Media Forum.

The launch of T&JM was announced on November 26 during the session "Sustainability of Support for Ukrainian Media" at the Re:Cover conference in Krakow.

Ukrainian media can use this mechanism if their page on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok:

Depending on the type of problem, the T&JM coordinator will either advise the applicant on available ways to resolve it within the platform or escalate the case to the platform's moderators for prompt review.

To use this mechanism, please fill out an application on the website.

Olga Myrovych, Head of Lviv Media Forum, highlighted the vital importance of links between Ukrainian media and their audiences on social networks: "We have confidence that Tech & Journalism Crisis and Emergency Mechanism will help in maintaining and fortifying this connection. It also aims to inspire media outlets to delve more profoundly into the community guidelines of social platforms and take a more responsible approach to compliance."

To compile a list of media whose requests will be sent to the platform without additional verification, GFMD and Lviv Media Forum created the coalition of Ukrainian non-governmental organizations with expertise in the media sphere.

GFMD anticipates that the data collected during the mechanism's operation will be used to advocate for systemic changes in the policies of technological platforms. T&JM for Ukraine is a pilot project; in the future, after analyzing the effectiveness and potential of the mechanism, there are intentions to expand it to other regions.

The use of T&JM is voluntary, does not exempt media from moderation, and does not guarantee that the problem will be resolved in favor of the media. However, it represents an additional opportunity for media to convey requests to the administration of social networks.

Reed more about the mechanism here.

The Global Forum for Media Development is the world's largest community of organizations advocating for media development, media freedom, and journalism support. The network has 171 member organizations (among them, Lviv Media Forum) and dozens of partners worldwide. Its mission is to create and promote policies and programs to support journalism as a public good.