An independent appeals board was unveiled on Tuesday to resolve disputes between social media companies and their users in the European Union over content posted on their platforms.
The out-of-court dispute resolution body, called Appeals Center Europe and supported by Meta’s supervisory board, will be established in Dublin under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The act controls illegal content such as hate speech and misinformation on major online platforms and allows outside entities to set up mechanisms to resolve disputes.
“The body will initially decide cases related to Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, with the aim of including more social media platforms over time,” the board said in a statement.
Meta’s supervisory board — often described as a high court for the company’s content control decisions — provides a one-time grant for the center.
COP29 race looms over climate funds for the developing world
Thomas Hughes, the former head of the supervisory board, will be CEO of the new body and said it should start accepting cases by the end of the year.
He told AFP it was a “game-changing moment” and confirmed that users would be able to appeal to the appeals center for a wide range of disputes under the DSA.
This could be a decision to remove — or leave — content that the user believes is hate speech, incitement to violence, or other categories deemed unacceptable.
The DSA aims to force the biggest online companies to tackle illegal content or face fines of up to six per cent of their global turnover.
The bloc has already used the DSA to investigate Facebook and Instagram for failing to tackle election-related disinformation and has accused X of breaking the rules with its “verified” accounts.
US dock workers to return to work after a tentative deal
The establishment of a dispute resolution mechanism is part of the process for the full operation of the law.
Empowering Europeans
Meta established the supervisory board in 2020 with an irrevocable trust fund of $130 million.
The panel has the power to overrule the company over content control decisions with CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising to abide by its rulings.
Hughes explained that the board trust had paid for the new appeals center but once it was set up it would take payments from users and companies.
Users, he said, would pay a nominal fee of five euros ($5.50), which would be refunded if they won the appeal. The companies would pay around 100 euros for each case.
“It puts in the hands of individual users the ability to challenge decisions made about their own content and what other content they also see online,” he told AFP.
Biden official urges talks as US port strike enters second day
Last month, Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s digital enforcement chief, explained to reporters that, at its heart, the DSA was about empowering Europeans to hold big tech to account.
“DSA is not content moderation,” he said on a visit to the United States.
“It’s a system that allows you to actually know what’s being removed so you can complain about it.”
Source: AFP