The IPTC has provided input to a submission made by the Global Media Registry to the European Commission’s European Democracy Shield consultation.

The GMR submission discusses the value of organisational identification:

The Importance of Identification and Attribution

Unambiguous attribution is in the best interest of anyone doing honest business. It is also a key requirement for consumer protection.

Not surprisingly, to “Know your Supplier” (KYS) and to “Know your Customer” (KYC) have become essential principles of securing supply chains in almost every industry. In turn, bad actors can capitalize on the absence of clear attribution by faking the identity of brands, vendors or buyers to deceit and to cheat – and to get away with it.

Exactly this happens currently in the field of disinformation, as far as the phenomenon of so-called “Doppelgangers” is concerned. It refers to anonymous imposters falsely claiming to be – among others – DER SPIEGEL, Le Monde, CBC/Radio-Canada, the BBC or CNN, to publish content online that would never appear in either of those highly acclaimed news outlets.

The C2PA specification, and IPTC’s efforts to implement it in the media industry through the IPTC Origin Verified News Publishers List, are recommended as critical means to identify media organisations in a way that is tamper-evident and traceable. Other means of identifying organisations mentioned in the paper include the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), Global Media ID (which is promoted by Global Media Registry) and International Standard Content Code (ISCC).

The paper concludes:

As a response to the World Financial Crisis 2008/09, the Financial Stability Board of the G20 established a global system of legal entity identifiers, and eventually GLEIF, in order to fix a number of apparent vulnerabilities of the financial sector.

The European Commission should follow this example when designing the ‘Democracy Shield’ and support a global system of identification to fix a number of equally visible vulnerabilities of our shared information space.

Global Media Registry, a liaison partner of the IPTC, is one of the organisations behind the forthcoming ISO specification for a Global Media Identifier (GMI). The specification is currently going through the ISO standardisation process as ISO IWA 44:2025. The IPTC and some IPTC member organisations have participated in the drafting process.