Standards Development

Scope

This document provides requirements and recommendations for the structure, associated metadata to be included and the governance of the Global Media Identifier (GMId) that can be assigned to all media outlets that publish content online. The identification of material, digital or physical content objects is out of scope of this document.

Purpose

The aim of the GMId is to establish source identity, including a clear connection between channels operated by the same editorial unit across platforms, including news media websites and their social media presence. Such an interoperable system of GMIDs is crucial to safeguarding the integrity of news and information ecosystems, which is relevant when publishing, accessing, and managing content online.

Additional parties engaged in this information ecosystem such as individuals (influencers, bloggers, or independent journalists), as well as third-party aggregators and other distributors may be considered for GMId assignment.

Global Media Identifiers are one of the possibly multiple components of an open and scalable infrastructure of identifier systems and indicators that aim at safeguarding the transparency, responsibility and accountability of online content and its sources. The purpose of this standard is therefore not to replace existing standards and indicators, but to add a holistic and global framework with a view on harmonising them. Furthermore, the GMId is intended to be assigned to channels and brands (for content providers) – not to individual pieces of content (assets), nor specific distribution channels of a media outlet (such as websites, printed publications, or broadcast signals), so that the industry, regulators, audiences and other stakeholders can unambiguously identify the respective source of information, for example to trace back and identify its ultimate beneficial owner.

The standard also describes the outlines of GMId’s technical infrastructure and its practical implementation. However, many of the specific implementation details of the standard will be left to the Registration Autority and Registration Agencies when these entities are created and specific systems are deployed.

The GMId system will be a neutral, non-judgemental numbering or naming convention, not a certification scheme. Thus, it does not include any requirements for the assessment of online content – for example as regards its “trustworthiness” or quality – or an outlet’s compliance with journalistic standards.

This proposal is a follow-up effort to an International Workshop Agreement effort that was launched in February 2024 and will be published by ISO in March 2025 (pending). That IWA document serves as the basis of the proposed international standard and is included as an Annex to this draft.