New appeals body hears complaints about policy violations by Facebook, TikTok and YouTube

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Users of Facebook, TikTok and YouTube will soon be able to turn to the Appeals Center Europe, an independent body, to appeal decisions on these platforms’ policy violations.

The organization announced on Tuesday that it had received the green light from Irish regulator Coimisiún na Meán to be certified under the EU’s platform rules, the Digital Services Act (DSA), as a so-called out-of-court dispute resolution body.

Coimisiún na Meán is responsible for monitoring the DSA compliance of platforms in Ireland. Most of the largest Big Tech companies are headquartered in Dublin.

The aim of the appeal center is to provide an alternative to “often costly and time-consuming legal redressal pathways,” the statement said, and to reduce the burden on regulators and courts.

It will be able to decide whether platforms’ decisions are consistent with their content policies, including any principles applied to those policies relating to human rights.

It will initially deal with disputes from individuals and organizations in the EU, just with Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, with the aim of adding more over time.

“An internal team of experts will conduct a human review of each case,” the statement said, adding that it will have expertise in specific regions, languages ​​and policy areas.

“The emerging dispute resolution landscape in the European Union has enormous potential to empower people and communities by enabling them to challenge content decisions on social media platforms,” said Thomas Hughes, CEO.

The center will be based in Dublin and the first disputes from social media users are expected to occur later this year.

Once open, the center will be funded by fees charged to social media companies for each case. Users who file a dispute only pay a small fee, which is refunded if the appeal center’s decision is in their favor.

The DSA – which applied to all online platforms last February – requires platforms to take content moderation and transparency measures.

The European Commission has so far classified 25 online platforms and search engines as very large online platforms because they reach the threshold of 45 million active users per month.

The Commission monitors compliance with the rules of the 25 largest companies, while the smaller ones are monitored by national regulators. The EU executive has so far submitted numerous requests for information and compliance investigations on AliExpress, Meta, TikTok and X.