Author: Фондација Метаморфозис

Online advertisements should have so-called (digital) fingerprints, so that it can be tracked who pays for those advertisements, for or against whom they are intended. Such fingerprints of advertisements should not only contain as much information and detail as possible but should also be kept in appropriate files so that there could be greater transparency, and they could be easier to track. These were some of the conclusions that Magnus Öhman, Senior Political Finance Advisor at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), shared at today’s briefing with journalists in Skopje, organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation and IFES, within the framework of the project “Money, Media and Elections in North Macedonia.” Dr.Magnus Öhman gave a comparative perspective on political advertising around the world, as well as some of the good practices, saying:
– Paid online funding, as expected, represents the largest share of political funding during elections. For example, in the last two months of last year’s US presidential election alone, $700 million was spent on Meta and Google alone, out of a total of $1.2 billion spent on online advertising during the campaign
Dr. Magnus Öhman (Photo: personal archive)
Dr.Öhman emphasized that a single country should not be taken as an example to completely rewrite the system, the law on financial reporting, especially since, in his opinion, many of the regulatory frameworks and laws lag behind new methods of political advertising. He emphasized the example of Donald Trump, who during the presidential election allocated less funds for political advertising and turned more to influencers and online commentators.
This is exactly what Emilija Petreska Kamenjarova from the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services spoke about at last week’s panel discussion. She pointed out that the media regulation covers influencers who share videos on online platforms in order to inform, entertain or educate users, and from that they make economic profit. And with the new rulebook that the Agency is to adopt this year, the criteria for which influencers will be subject to legal regulation will be specified.
“It is sufficient to reference online advertising in the [electoral] code,” says Dr. Öhman, “which would provide adequate oversight, thereby allowing regulatory commissions the opportunity to clarify the method of reporting and informing on online advertising, define what constitutes online political advertising, and specify what does not”
He also emphasizes that it is not only “states”, i.e. political entities, that are obliged to be as transparent as possible about advertising funding, but also the platforms and advertisers themselves where these ads are placed. In other words, how much money the candidates have allocated, how much and from whom the platforms have received it.
He emphasizes that EU regulations will only now need to be harmonized among member states, especially since they themselves have different laws on political advertising. Thus, аll member states will monitor the alignment separately, and the EU Commission will monitor candidate countries such as North Macedonia.
Furthermore, Dr. Öhman shared several good practices that are good to implement. The so-called (digital) imprints were emphasized several times, with which it would be possible to track who pays how much for those ads, for or against whom they are intended. Such imprints would be collected in some kind of files, similar to the Meta and Google ad libraries. As a positive example resembling such a system, the “Political Advert Repository” or PADRE from South Africa was singled out.
PADRE is actually an initiative of the South African Electoral Commission that aims to systematize online and digital political advertisements into easily accessible libraries that will increase transparency in electoral processes.
Photo: Screenshot from the South African Political Advert Repository, PADRE
Although, as Dr. Öhman shared and as can be seen from the website itself, the library is empty and has yet to be filled, the goal is to make the process as easy and quick as possible. This is the second good practice recommendation that Dr. Öhman shared. He believes that this process of reporting political advertising funding should be made simpler, so that it can be monitored.
The last example Dr. Öhman shared is adding some kind of code to the ads themselves. These codes would be placed beneath the ad and could be accessed in a file like PADRE. Alternatively, the codes could include a link that redirects to a library, where you can view the details of the ad’s origin, including the individuals responsible and the amount paid for the advertisement.

Source: Truthmeter.mk

We are pleased to inform you that the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), in collaboration with the Metamorphosis Foundation, is organizing an international conference titled “Clicks, Money, and Influence: The Roles and Responsibilities of Online Media in Elections.” The conference will be held on 4-5 March 2025 at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Skopje.
The two-day event will bring together experts and stakeholders to discuss ways to strengthen transparency and oversight of paid political advertising during election campaigns, including on online platforms. The sessions will cover various topics, such as paid political advertising, institutional roles, and the evolving conditions of the digital era. Best practices, technological solutions, and regulatory approaches will be shared to promote transparency, accountability, and accuracy in overseeing online platforms.
The conference is organized within the framework of the project “Money, Media, and Elections in North Macedonia,” supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) of the UK Government.

The Metamorphosis Foundation’s Initiative to align our legislation with the EU Digital Services Act has been accepted by the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia and included in its 2025 Work Programme.
Aligning the legislation with the Digital Services Act will support North Macedonia’s EU integration goals, improve its digital regulatory framework and provide a safer and more predictable digital environment for citizens and the business community.
This decision acknowledges the Metamorphosis Foundation’s efforts in promoting digital rights and internet security, as well as its commitment to fostering a fair and open online environment. At the same time, it supports the integrity of the consultative mechanism.
The Metamorphosis Foundation has produced an analysis of North Macedonia’s readiness to align national legislation with the EU Digital Services Act, which offers a detailed overview of the existing legal framework, identifies legal gaps and challenges, and gives concrete recommendations that can serve as a guide to effective alignment.

A safe internet for all!

The digital world offers many opportunities but also presents challenges. On Safer Internet Day, we emphasize the importance of digital services and our rights. Watch the video to learn how the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is making the internet safer for all and discover how its new rules protect us online—from ensuring algorithmic transparency to combating disinformation.

Together we can create a better and safer internet!

The ninth wave of measuring the openness of the executive and legislative branches of power in four countries of the Western Balkan region, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, through the Openness Index, has begun. The measurement is carried out by the network “Accountability, Technology and Institutional Openness Network in South East Europe – ACTION SEE” with support of the National Endowment for Democracy – NED “Leveraging technology to promote institutional accountability and transparency.”

The Openness Index is a composite indicator that measures, over the course of eight consecutive years, the degree of openness of state institutions in the Western Balkans to citizens and society. It was developed to assess the extent to which citizens in the region receive relevant and understandable information from these institutions.
To measure the degree of institutional openness, the partners of the ACTION SEE network, in line with international standards, recommendations, and best practices, monitor institutions using specific quantitative and qualitative indicators. These include access to information on official institutional websites, the quality of the legal framework for various issues, alternative public information sources, published data on the operations of institutions, public procurement data, and information on public spending, among others.
Based on the eighth wave of measurements carried out during 2024, the publications Assessment of Good Governance of the Executive Branch in North Macedonia and the Region through the Openness Index according to the Measurement for the Year 2023 and Assessment of Good Governance of the Legislative Branch in North Macedonia and the Region through the Openness Index according to the Measurement for the Year 2023 provide a detailed picture of the openness of individual institutions and include concrete recommendations and steps to improve their transparency.
The project “Leveraging technology to promote institutional accountability and transparency” is implemented by the Center for Democratic Transition (Montenegro) in partnership with the Metamorphosis Foundation for Internet and Society, the Citizens Association Why Not?, and Partners for Democratic Change Serbia (Serbia), with financial support from the National Endowment for Democracy – NED.

The Metamorphosis Foundation participated in the 5th annual “Privacy Week” conference, organized by Partners for Democratic Change (Partners Serbia), held in Belgrade from January 29-31, 2025, under the theme “Privacy for All.”

This year’s conference focused on privacy and data protection, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable, including activists and journalists.
On January 30, 2025, the central event of “Privacy Week” took place, coinciding with International Data Protection Day. The conference explored the synergy of personal data protection and the fight against discrimination, the protection of digital rights for citizens outside the European Union’s regulatory framework and the so-called Brussels Effect, the protection of medical data in the development of artificial intelligence models, along with several other related topics.

Danche Danilovska-Bajdevska, Program Director at the Metamorphosis Foundation, was the moderator of the panel “Brussels Effect—A View from the Periphery,” which was focused on the impact of European regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act (DSA), and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on the digital market and human rights in countries outside the EU regulatory framework. Panelists in this session examined the effects of these regulations, with particular attention to the rights protection mechanisms available to citizens and the challenges in applying them outside the EU. The discussion also highlighted successful initiatives to protect digital rights outside the EU, as well as the opportunities and benefits of integrating the Western Balkans into the single digital market.

Dear President von der Leyen,Dear Executive Vice-President Ribera,Dear Executive Vice-President Virkkunen,

We, the undersigned civil society organisations, trade unions and businesses, urge you to resistpolitical pressure from Big Tech companies and prioritise bold action to protect our democracyand economy. If the EU wants to uphold its sovereignty it must not pause or weaken theenforcement of its rules.
We have observed with increasing concern how the CEOs of US Big Tech companies have takenturns to ingratiate themselves with the Trump administration in part to mobilise it against EUrules such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), competition policy and the Digital Services Act(DSA).
The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, has publicly stated that the company would seek to workwith President Trump to undermine laws in the EU, directly targeting the DSA but alsocompetition policy enforcement. Similarly, Apple CEO Tim Cook has reportedly petitioned Trumpdirectly to spare him the fines imposed by the EU following a state aid investigation.
We are relieved to hear you remain fully committed to the strict application of the DSA and DMAand to enforcing those rules wherever companies do not comply in full, following press reportsthat suggested the Commission was considering pausing ongoing investigations.
The undersigned organisations re-emphasise in the strongest possible terms that enforcing theDSA, DMA and competition policy is essential for protecting people from the worst abusesonline, for shielding our democracies against foreign interference, for creating opportunities forEuropean innovators, for preserving media pluralism, and limiting the dangerous political andmarket power that Big Tech corporations hold today. We reiterate our support for theCommission services that do the day-to-day enforcement work and we call on you to take bolddecisions based on their assessments.
Yet, this time shows more than ever before that to rein in Big Tech the EU also needs to invest intechnology that enables a more diverse and decentralised digital public sphere.

Pausing enforcement would be to admit defeat in your work to make the digital sphere fair and safe

Big Tech CEOs trying to curry favour with the US administration is no surprise. In fact, Big Techcompanies have achieved their immense market dominance in part by wielding their power toavoid complying with laws such as data protection and competition policy in the past. They haveall heavily lobbied against the EU’s use of competition tools and the DMA since the proposal wasfirst discussed. Apple and Meta also tried to block DMA enforcement with legal actions againstthe Commission questioning their gatekeeper status.
Now Big Tech CEOs are seeking to mobilise the Trump administration to protect their ability toexploit users and businesses dependent on them, including app developers, publishers,advertisers, and others, all while continuing to stifle potential competitors. This exploitation hasnot only created an unfair digital economy; it has directly impacted the dynamism and pluralismof Europe’s economy.
Re-introducing contestability, fairness and choice to the digital market will already be a difficulttask. If we pause or weaken enforcement, we risk making it impossible.

Europe must not be bullied by the likes of Musk and Trump into weakening its DSA and DMAenforcement

At the same time, the actions taken by X and Meta are a stark reminder of how vulnerableEurope is in our dependency on the largest online platforms.
X in particular has been in violation of its obligations under the DSA for some time, as underlinedby the Commission’s own preliminary findings. The way Musk and his oligarch allies use theplatform for anti-democratic political propaganda, lies, and targeted harassment, is a seriousthreat to our democracy and political discourse in Europe. We are deeply worried about thepower they now wield through the algorithmic manipulation machine that underpins X’s socialmedia feeds.
Meta recently announced a major watering down of their content moderation approach acrosstheir platforms. This change abolishes some of the most basic human rights protections,expressly allowing the targeting of marginalised communities and emboldening extremists. Whilethose changes have been announced to apply to US users first, Facebook, Instagram and Threadsare global platforms. US-based, English-language content will inevitably be seen and shared byEEA users as well, and these users are very likely to experience the fallout of this degradation ofcontent moderation. They will rightly ask how the DSA protects them.

Now is the time to double down on EU tech sovereignty

This is not a clash between the EU and the US, but rather an attack from Big Tech againsteveryone else.
That is why we ask you today for bold political leadership to not only stand up to the bullyingfrom Big Tech firms but also to prioritise strong enforcement of the digital rulebook. In addition,we call on you to invest in a diverse and decentralised digital sphere that is part of a sovereigndigital commons and not owned and governed by proprietary technology corporations,regardless of where they reside.
Yours sincerely,
‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, PolandAccess Now, GlobalAlgorithmWatch, GermanyAspiration, USAvaaz, GlobalBalanced Economy Project, GlobalBürgerbewegung Finanzwende, GermanyCenter for Countering Digital Hate, US/UKCorporate Europe Observatory, EUCommons Network, the NetherlandsCryptee, EstoniaDanes je nov dan, SloveniaDefend Democracy, Netherlands/BelgiumDemocracy Reporting International (DRI), GlobalDigital Action, GlobalDigitale Gesellschaft, SwitzerlandDržavljan D / Citizen D, SloveniaEKŌ, USEuropean Public Services Union (EPSU), EUEuropean Digital Rights (EDRi), EUFEMNET, GermanyGermanwatch e.V., GermanyGoliathwatch, GermanyGong, CroatiaHomo Digitalis, GreeceIrish Council for Civil Liberties, IrelandLobbycontrol, GermanyMatrix.org Foundation, UKMetamorphosis Foundation, North MacedoniaNextcloud, GermanyOpen Markets Institute, USPanoptykon Foundation, PolandPeople vs Big Tech, GlobalPolitiscope, CroatiaRebalance Now, GermanySHARE Foundation, SerbiaSOMO, the NetherlandsThe Good Lobby, EUThe London Story, Belgium / the NetherlandsTransnational Institute (TNI), the NetherlandsVrijschrift.org, NetherlandsXnet, Institute for Democratic Digitalisation, Spain

Expert Sam Power has revealed that state funding of media outlets during the election campaign is not entirely proportional.
North Macedonia has several ways to prevent corruption in online media funding through government money.

British election financing expert and University of Bristol lecturer Sam Power presented the key findings of the project “Money, Media, and Elections in North Macedonia” today at a briefing with journalists in Skopje. The event was organized by the Metamorphosis Foundation and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), writes Portalb.mk
Expert Sam Power has found that state funding of media outlets during the election campaign is not entirely proportionate. According to him, there is weak regulatory oversight, transparent in theory but not in practice.
In many areas, North Macedonia aligns with EU standards, except when it comes to indirect state funding through paid political advertising. The country’s media funding system mirrors that of countries like Bhutan, Kenya, Peru, and Thailand, as noted by Power. In contrast, countries such as Brazil, the Comoros, and Switzerland have banned political advertising altogether, while Spain and the United Kingdom offer free airtime for political content.
Currently, there is no specific body in North Macedonia to oversee online portals. Therefore, Power believes that if we give people the opportunity to behave corruptly, we should not be surprised when they do so.
“There is a high probability that state funds will be misused by politicians in connection with online portals. Money is essential, but it has the power to distort democracy,” Power said.
Based on his findings, expert Power outlined 11 recommendations based on which he aims to regulate the transparency of media financing during elections:
1. Review the distribution criteria for receiving (direct and indirect) state support, so that it is linked to votes and seats secured in previous elections, in line with EU standards.
2. Ensure timely allocation of funds and transparency of the methodology for allocating funds and designate a body responsible for disbursements.
3. To prevent established political parties from becoming too dominant, official broadcasts (offline and online) should be balanced according to the Irish model.
4. Appoint a body (likely AVMS) to monitor the activity of online portals and ensure compliance with the rules.
5. There should be no shared oversight responsibilities and each organization in the regulatory ecosystem should have a defined role in overseeing elements of election/political financing.
6. Consolidation and harmonization of regulatory responsibility between AVMS, SPC, SEC and SAO.
7. Building the integrity of the electoral process by investing in the right resources in the regulatory ecosystem.
8. Recommendation to build transparency in the political system of North Macedonia and make election expenditure payments available in the form of an easily searchable and updated database.
9. In the longer term, implementing some form of gender-specific mandates on how parties use public funds–whether by mandating that a certain percentage be dedicated to promoting women candidates, by requiring that a portion of funds be earmarked for promoting women candidates, or by offering appropriate incentives.
10. Amend the Electoral Code to explicitly prohibit hate speech in paid political advertising.
11. Introducing provisions in the Law on Financing of Political Parties to ensure fair distribution of funds for inclusive campaigns.
We remind you that the Metamorphosis Foundation investigated public funds for election campaigns on online portals. The survey was conducted on 30 selected online information portals, which is more than 10% of the total number of registered websites (251) to the State Election Commission for paid political advertising. In the period from 15 April to 10 May 2024, a total of 13,645 posts about the elections were monitored.
The survey showed that most of the monitored portals were focused on the main parliamentary parties/coalitions, while reporting on smaller parties was limited.
The research also recommends strengthening professional standards for journalists by supporting investigative and analytical reporting through specialized training programs for journalists on advanced investigative skills, ethical guidelines, and best practices in investigative journalism.
Source: Meta.mk