In an article for Telemedicus, Martin Fertmann, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz and Dr. Stephan Dreyer discuss whether cooperation between health authorities and internet intermediaries is illegal.
Read the entire article here (in German)
Abstract
Along with the pre-Christmas canon of rising Corona case numbers, stricter infection control measures and growing concerns about the spread of Corona-related disinformation came the announcement by the Media Authority Hamburg-Schleswig Holstein (MAHSH) that it had initiated proceedings against Google for cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG). Initially, the German Newspaper Publishers and Digitalpublishers Association (BDZV)
had already publicly criticised this cooperation as a breach of regulatory taboo.
This measure also marks the first proceedings against media intermediaries based on the new State Media Treaty (MStV), which came into force in November. In addition to the question of how this decision will affect the cooperation of large Internet companies and public authorities for the dissemination of trustworthy corona information, the proceedings throw a first spotlight on the media intermediary regulation of the new MStV in general, which still contains some ambiguities.
Fertmann, M.; Schulz, W.; Dreyer, S. (2020) Landesmedienanstalt gegen gesundheitsbezogene Google Knowledge-Panels: Sind Kooperationen von Gesundheitsbehörden und Internet-Intermediären rechtswidrig? [State Media Authority v. Health-Related Google Knowledge Panels: Are Cooperations of Health Authorities and Internet Intermediaries Illegal?] In:Telemedicus, https://www.telemedicus.info/landesmedienanstalt-gegen-gesundheitsbezogene-google-knowledge-panels/ (28.12.2020)