Eskens, S.J.

English

Many online news media are experimenting with personalisation. News personalisation means that each news user receives a selection of articles specifically selected for them.This research asks how EU fundamental rights can inform the regulation of the relationship between online news media that personalise the news and their users. The fundamental right to data protection, which is given expression in the GDPR, and the fundamental right to receive information, give rise to concrete regulatory guidelines for news personalisation. News users should be empowered to stop personalisation at any moment, and they should have the option to change their user profiles. Furthermore, states should ensure that news personalisation does not diminish the diversity of the content which people receive.The fundamental rights to freedom of thought, opinion, and expression do not lead to concrete regulatory imperatives for news personalisation. The bar to establish an interference with the right to freedom of thought or opinion is high, and it is a stretch to suggest that news personalisation interferes with the ability of people to express themselves freely. Nonetheless, personalised news media have arbitrary power over news users' choices, thereby limiting the freedom of thought, opinion, and expression of news users. The arbitrariness of this power can be reduced by allowing news users to participate in the personalisation process, in a manner that goes beyond giving consent to process their personal data or ticking some boxes in their user profile. News users should be able to exercise control over the goals for which their news feeds are personalised.The conclusion is that some fundamental rights are suitable to regulate news personalisation. In contrast, for other fundamental rights, we need a few extra steps of translation and eventually additional legislation to fully guarantee these rights in the personalised news environment

International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications

The fundamental rights of news users:The legal groundwork for a personalised online news environment

https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/65237279/Thesis.pdf

The fundamental rights of news users:The legal groundwork for a personalised online news environment

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International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications