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Article 50 for Publishers

Last updated: 8 November 2026

Article 50 for publishers means disclosing AI-generated public-interest text under Article 50(4), unless a human editor reviewed it and someone holds editorial responsibility. Realistic AI images, audio or video of real people, places or events must be disclosed with no editorial exception. The free Article50.io scan loads one public page in a real browser and shows the most severe finding.

Many newsrooms using AI will fall under the editorial exception. The most common gap is automated briefs with no editor in the loop. Here's how to tell.

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Does Article 50 apply to you?

It's likely relevant if you…

✔Auto-publish AI-written news, summaries or briefs without an editor signing them off
✔Publish AI-generated or manipulated text on current affairs, politics, health or other public-interest topics
✔Illustrate stories with realistic AI-generated images, video or audio of real people, places or events
✔Build your own AI tools that generate content for readers (summaries, audio versions)

It's probably not relevant if…

—Articles are written by people, with AI used only for spelling, grammar or light editing
—AI drafts go through genuine human review or editorial control, and a person or organisation holds editorial responsibility for publication
—You publish content that isn't aimed at informing the public on matters of public interest — though realistic AI images still need checking against the deep fake rule

Not sure which situation you're in? Start from does Article 50 apply to you?

Which parts of Article 50 apply, and why

Art. 50(4) — public-interest text

Deployers publishing AI-generated or manipulated text to inform the public on matters of public interest must disclose it — unless it has undergone human review or editorial control and someone holds editorial responsibility.

Art. 50(4) — deep fakes in your coverage

Realistic AI-generated or manipulated images, audio or video that resemble real people, places or events (Art. 3(60)) must be disclosed. There's no editorial exception for this half of the sub-clause.

Art. 50(2) — if you build the tool

If your own product generates content — automated summaries, synthetic audio versions — you're its provider and the output must be machine-readably marked.

The most common gap: automated briefs with no editor in the loop

The editorial exception protects AI-assisted journalism that goes through a real editor. The risk sits with automated formats: AI news summaries, auto-generated market or sports briefs, or machine-translated wire copy that publishes straight to the site. Without human review and an accountable editor, those need a disclosure.

Use the public-interest text template, and see does Article 50 apply to AI-generated text? for how 50(4) and 50(2) divide up AI text.

What the free scan checks

The free scan flags pages whose markup marks content as AI-generated but shows no visible disclosure. It can't tell whether an article was written by AI when nothing on the page says so, and it can't see your editorial process — so the editorial exception is yours to document.

Check your site automatically

Article50.io is an automated scanner for the Article 50 transparency rules of the EU AI Act. It scans a website for potential Article 50 transparency gaps and generates a report of what the scan found and what it could not check, with remediation guidance, implementation instructions and disclosure wording you can paste in.

The free scan shows your single most severe finding. Scans are capped at 45 seconds — no signup, public pages only.