Speech by Martin Ajdari, President of Arcom, at the opening of the 4th Arcom Study Day

Check against delivery,

Madam President of ENS Paris-Saclay, dear Nathalie Carrasco,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of Parliament,

Ladies and gentlemen, researchers and non-researchers alike,

Welcome to the 4th edition of the Arcom study day, held on this November 13, a day of commemoration for us all, and a day we wanted to use to examine the challenges that are essential for public freedoms.

Thank you, Madam President, for agreeing to let ENS Paris-Saclay help Arcom organize this day, and in particular for giving us the benefit of your expertise in selecting the papers to be presented today. Everyone is aware of the excellence of Paris-Saclay and your international reputation, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, and this partnership is a source of great pride for Arcom. This is the 2nd year we've worked together on this event.

Thank you, of course, to the researchers who have done us the honour of presenting their work to us and, beyond that, to all those who responded to the call for papers we launched last summer. Finally, thank you all for coming in such large numbers today.

Firstly, to encourage exchanges between us, as audiovisuel and digital regulators, and the scientific community on issues we all share; secondly, to showcase the work of researchers, by demonstrating how it sheds light on the exercise of our missions; and thirdly, to document the public debate on complex challenges, in a context of polarized viewpoints that leave too little room for scientific rigor.

Documenting the debate is one of our missions at Arcom, as demonstrated by the in-depth study we published on September 25 on the exposure of minors to online risks, the results of which were widely reported in the media and fed into our strategy and action plan for the protection of minors.

This 4th edition comes at a time when Arcom is deploying the extensive skills it has been endowed with in the digital field, skills that call on it to take up three types of challenge in which the help of the scientific community will be indispensable:

• The first is the identification and assessment, within the framework of the European regulation on digital services (the DSA), of the systemic risks resulting from the operation of very large platforms (those with more than 45 million monthly users, i.e. 10% of the European population). The DSA identifies 4 main categories of systemic risk:

1/ diffusion of unlawful content ;

2/ infringement of fundamental rights: human dignity, freedom of expression, privacy and consumer protection;

3/ threats to democratic processes and public safety;

4/ threats to the physical and mental health of individuals, especially persons under 18.

As you can see, the assessment and control of these risks, which cover a very broad spectrum of human activities, are eminently important and complex, and summon a cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach, which is the one we are adopting today.

• The second challenge, linked to the previous one, is to anticipate the implications of the widespread use of artificial intelligence which, in one way or another, will affect Arcom's missions and skills in the months to come. Implementing the Artificial Intelligence Regulation tomorrow, like implementing the DSA now, will require a detailed understanding of ecosystems and the ability to "think complexity", drawing on the skills of Arcom's agents, but also on the more specific skills of researchers.

• The 3rd challenge, which will inform much of our work today, is to protect the quality of democratic debate and what is summoned the integrity of the information space. This is the challenge posed by the European regulation on media freedom (due to come into force in 2025) and the draft legislation on the protection and development of the right to information, which is due to translate its provisions into French law in the near future, while drawing inspiration from the Etats Généraux de l'Information, whether in terms of modernising merger control to strengthen plurality; transparency of media ownership and state advertising; media governance).

To meet these challenges, and this is what this study day is all about, we are convinced that we can only act intelligently, and regulate effectively, if we know how to measure and understand. Measuring, understanding and regulating are the three sides of the same action in favor of freedom of communication. This freedom is one of the most precious of assets, but it cannot be absolute, and must be accompanied, and sometimes supervised, if it is to be protected.

And it is for this reason that we intend to intensify our collaboration with the scientific community in the years to come, whether as part of the scientific committee set up by Arcom in 2020, to support its many research activities; or as part of the digital expertise centers that we share with Arcep on the one hand, and with government departments on the other.

And above all, as part of the implementation of Article 40 of the DSA, which gives researchers access to platform data, to enable academic research to play its full role in serving society.

Since October 29, researchers have been able to apply for access to non-public data from major online platforms, in order to carry out research projects in the public interest, subject to approval. Arcom is available to support and guide researchers as they prepare their applications.

Finally, a few words about the day's program, which is particularly tempting:

• In the morning, the 1st panel will look at the dynamics of information production and consumption, and their consequences for democratic participation; the 2nd will discuss the various fact-checking schemes and their effects on platform users;

• In the afternoon, the 3rd panel will take stock of the different facets of plurality and diversity; finally, the 4th and last panel will look at moderation norms on online platforms.

Two keynotes by Professors Thomas Hochmann and Francesca Musiani will punctuate what promises to be an extremely rich discussion. Many thanks to the teams at Arcom's Research, Economics and Forecasting Department, led by Bruno Schmutz, for organizing them.

I would like to conclude this introduction by emphasizing the extent to which Arcom needs researchers, their capacity for analysis and anticipation, their expertise, and their commitment to carry out its mission, and to respond to the demand for regulation of digital services that society is expressing ever more impatiently.

However determined they may be, the French and European authorities cannot act alone: to be effective, regulation must rely on the mobilization of everyone, from the user who points out inappropriate content, to the research laboratory that painstakingly reveals a recommendation bias in an algorithm.

In my view, this study day is a fine demonstration of the close ties that must be forged between citizens, regulators and researchers, in the service of a society of genuine rights and freedoms.

Thank you all very much.