The proposed solution

Although some media outlets and journalism organisations have received recognition from the platforms, many others have been left behind. This has been especially true for small, independent, and investigative media outlets in nations and regions that aren't viewed as major tech markets. The invasion of Ukraine demonstrated that the current approach is not only ineffective but also potentially harmful to local media and journalists and overall information spaces online.

To address the current bottleneck approach and ensure that credible and professional voices continue to exist and operate freely in digital environments, GFMD proposed a multistakeholder process to establish the Tech and Journalism Crisis and Emergency Mechanism (T&JM), starting with the region of Ukraine and the neighbouring countries.

This initiative aims to strengthen content and account moderation systems by establishing an emergency and crisis mechanism for journalists and media organisations to address incidnets and issues related to account moderation on tech platforms. The project specifically targets small and medium-sized media, community and investigative journalism organisations and their professional communities.

The key objective of the Tech and Journalism Crisis and Emergency Mechanism's (T&JM) is to engage journalism organisations, civil society, companies, and academics and experts to develop collaboratively:

Processes and criteria for identification of credible and trusted journalism organisations online, their communities, and representative groups;

Crisis and emergency protocols, case escalation criteria, and functioning escalation channels;

Key elements and processes for establishing a voluntary multistakeholder and emergency and crisis mechanism.