Head of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine Olha Herasymiuk says that regulation of the online segment of the information space is a global trend, and these norms will expand in Ukraine over time.

"The law On media does not provide for the accountability of social networks or other video sharing platforms. For the first time in the history of Ukraine, it introduces regulation of the online space, but it does not actually affect digital platforms. When the law was still a draft, and a working group was working on it, many noise was raised around the regulation of the Internet, which was interpreted as a major attack on freedom of speech. Although online regulation is a normal and necessary practice throughout the democratic world. However, the drafters of the law... settled on an extremely cautious liberal approach as the first step," Herasymiuk said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The National Council's head said today there is a voluntary registration of online media, and bloggers can also register as online media if they wish and for the benefits that such registration provides to their activities.

According to her, the National Council can enter into memorandums of cooperation with information and video access platforms and request the removal of certain content if it violates Ukrainian media law. "We are not talking about more yet. However, we are aware that online regulation is an urgent global trend, and dozens of countries are moving towards this. Therefore, over time, these norms in Ukraine will be expanded and supplemented with new ones," Herasymiuk said.

As for the bloggers who will not register, the National Council's head said until they are registered, they are not subjects in the media sphere and there are no grounds to apply response measures to them.

"However, according to the law (clause 14, Article 92), the National Council may apply to foreign providers of audiovisual media services on request, as well as providers of public access to information platforms regarding the restriction of distribution in Ukraine of programs and user information or videos that violate the requirements of Articles 36, 42, 119 of the law. Thus, the requirement to comply with the norms of the law on content restrictions applies to everyone – both registered media and unregistered entities," she said.

Herasymiuk said if a blogger violates the requirements of the law, the regulator is authorized to start communication with the administrator of the platform on which this blogger operates, and the violation gives grounds to ask for the removal of the relevant content.