Nidal Khalil is a cartoonist, illustrator and animation director from Syria, who works (among other things) as an independent artist, children books illustrator and live cartoonist for television.

Cartoon by Alfredo Martirena

Our September newsletter is out! Read it here to catch up on our latest projects, events, reviews and most popular cartoons. And subscribe to get our monthly newsletter automatically delivered to your inbox each month.

Cartoon by Elmer

Interesting news from the Netherlands: Dutch copyright organization Pictoright has summed Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for copyright infringement. The company is not fulfilling its legal obligations towards the visual artists represented by Pictoright.

Pictoright is of the opinion that Meta should pay a fair remuneration for the use of images on their social media platforms. Meta has been obliged to do so under the Dutch Copyright Act since 2021 (when the Dutch law was adapted to European regulations), but has failed to do so until now.

'Social media platforms make a huge amount of money from advertising thanks to the content that users upload and distribute,' says Hanneke Holthuis, General Counsel of Pictoright. 'Much of that content is created by professional photographers, designers, illustrators, architects, and other visual artists - works that are protected by copyright. Freely and without consent, their work is being shared on a large scale. It is only fair that the creators of these works be compensated for this, as is the case for other forms of large-scale use.'

Pictoright aims for an agreement with Meta to pay benefits to creators when their work is uploaded to social media, ensuring image creators receive fair compensation for their mass-shared work on social media.

The case was filed in December last year, but we are sharing the news now because the first court hearing is coming up, scheduled for 19 September in Amsterdam. The wheels of justice might turn slowly (and the tactic of Meta up until now seems to have been one of delay, delay and more delay), the outcome of this case could be very interesting for cartoonists.

What it would basically mean is that Meta would be obliged to pay a fee for cartoons that are uploaded and shared to social media. In the Netherlands this would most like be in the form of a payment to Pictoright, which would then be distributed among artists. Many cartoonists take issue with the fact that social media profit massive from their visual content without any form of compensation, while also needing social media to connect with their audience and to build a fan base. An 'upload fee' would be a very welcome solution to this problem, even when the fee would only apply to those images uploaded by others.

The legal process will likely take a long time, and the outcome of this case will be applicable only to the Netherlands. But if Pictoright wins, copyright organizations in other countries will likely follow suit. In any case, we'll keep you informed.

Cartoon by Victor Bogorad

Our August newsletter is out! Although we’ve been away for most of August, we do have a lot of upcoming events in September and beyond to tell you about. Read our newsletter here.

Cartoon by Marco de Angelis

We'll resume our regular publication schedule with the daily editor's choice cartoon on Monday. If you'd like to get our daily cartoon directly delivered to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter!

Cartoon by Faditoon

We are taking a break for the summer, from July 29 until the end of August. Our website will of course be accessible, but the daily editorial choice, daily newsletter and our social media activities will be paused during our break. We’ll be back in a few weeks with renewed energy to offer your daily dose of international political satire! In the meantime, you can check out our July newsletter.

Sharaf Kamal is a cartoonist from Yemen who recently joined our platform. His work comments on world politics and human behavior.

We are delighted to welcome our first cartoonist from North Macedonia. Armend Ajredini's work often explores and critiques contemporary socio-political issues, sparking dialogue and reflection.

We are happy to welcome José Alberto Rodríguez Avila from Cuba. He has been working as a cartoonist and illustrator for seven years with several Cuban publications.