Building Sovereign European Infrastructure for Content Trust : An Interview with Xavier Bruni
Building Sovereign European Infrastructure for Content Trust: An Interview with Xavier Bruni
A month after entering beta, ProvenanceForTrust — the Provenance program's platform — lets media outlets and information professionals verify the origin of content and document its provenance. It's built as sovereign European infrastructure, aligned from the ground up with the AI Act, the DSA, and the EMFA. Program lead Xavier Bruni reviews the first month.
Xavier Bruni, Provenance for Trust program lead
Photo Credit: CEPICWhat is the Provenance program, and what problem is it solving?
Provenance is a two-year program, launched in January 2025, built to answer a very concrete question for media outlets and information professionals across Europe: how do you verify where a piece of content came from, and how do you document its provenance, at a time when AI-generated or AI-modified content is everywhere?
It isn't a standalone research exercise. It combines product development with sustained work on aligning the platform with the European regulatory framework. The platform now live at app.provenance4trust.org is the first concrete output of that effort.
What can the platform do today?
It's built around two components.
Both components currently cover image, audio, and video. Text processing isn't available yet — we address that below.
Who is building ProvenanceForTrust?
ProvenanceForTrust is a genuine European consortium effort, not a single-vendor product. This mix of expertise lets the consortium advance the product and its legal foundations at the same time — a deliberate choice to build infrastructure that's accountable to European rules by design, not retrofitted to them.
Leads the consortium, coordinates the program, and contributes to platform development.
Develops the AI-generated content detection engine.
Provides the provenance-labeling layer via the C2PA standard and watermarking, with partner IMATAG.
Created and runs the Journalism Trust Initiative, the certification framework for transparency and integrity in media.
Studies the platform's impact on trust between media outlets and their audiences.
Supports alignment with the European regulatory framework — the AI Act, the DSA, and the EMFA.
One month after the beta launch: what's the early assessment?
Launch offers (free access) went out to the 400 media outlets certified under the Journalism Trust Initiative, as well as to all CEPIC members. Sign-ups are trickling in — still more cautiously than the team would like — with a stronger push expected as activity resumes in September.
The beta launch was deliberately designed as a learning step rather than a finished product. The feedback gathered so far is already shaping the next phase of development.
What has the early user feedback revealed?
The team held initial conversations with media outlets, fact-checkers, IT managers, and photographers from around the world — France, the US, Indonesia, the Czech Republic, Spain, Latvia, Mongolia, and more. Needs and expectations vary significantly by profile, but one need is universal: protecting digital content.
The most anticipated feedback, unsurprisingly, concerns text. The original roadmap planned text detection alongside images from the first phase; that isn't in place yet, and the question is still being worked through internally.
"It's something we address directly, particularly because it's sensitive for news media in light of Article 50 of the AI Act, which governs disclosure requirements for certain AI-generated texts used to inform the public on matters of public interest."
Xavier Bruni, on text detection ahead
Where does platform development stand?
Before summer 2026, the program's overall progress stood at 57%, with full program completion targeted for the end of 2026. The technical foundation is complete, the beta platform is being finalized, and an advanced version is in development.
ProvenanceForTrust is meant to be read as an evolving platform, not a finished product.
How central is the regulatory question — AI Act, DSA, EMFA — to this work?
Central, but not the whole story: the core of the program is provenance and traceability, technical subjects first and foremost. As regulatory obligations accumulate across multiple frameworks, though, this dimension keeps growing in importance — it's a workstream in its own right, not an afterthought. CEPIC works specifically on analyzing the AI Act, the DSA, and the EMFA to identify the principles that should guide the platform's development.
One point is important to state clearly: the verification and labeling features on offer are aids to verification and traceability. On their own, they don't guarantee a piece of content's authenticity, nor that a given use complies with the legal obligations applicable to each actor. That analysis remains the responsibility of users — the platform's role is to give them information that's as clear and accurate as possible to help them get there.
The goal hasn't changed
To give media outlets and information professionals reliable, sovereign, European tools to document and verify the provenance of what they publish.
- Xavier Bruni, Provenance for Trust program lead
Photo Credit: CEPICWhat's next for ProvenanceForTrust?
Continued work on the advanced version of the platform, extending detection to text, and refining integration into real editorial workflows — notably through APIs designed for content management systems, currently being built by L'Atelier and TrustMyContent.
The objective hasn't changed since day one: give media outlets and information professionals reliable, sovereign, European tools to document and verify the provenance of what they publish, within a framework that stays rigorously aligned with regulatory requirements.
Frequently asked questions
The platform is open in beta. Try it out and share your feedback — it directly shapes what we build next.
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