New body to handle disputes between EU users and Facebook, TikTok, YouTube

Social media users in the European Union will be able to make complaints against Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube over content moderation to a new independent body set up in Ireland.

The body, supported by Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board Trust and certified by Ireland’s media regulator, will act as an out-of-court dispute settlement body under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA).

Until now, individuals and organisations using social media have had limited options to challenge the content decisions of social media companies without going to court.

Appeals Centre Europe will start before the end of the year. It will initially decide cases relating to Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube, and will include more social media platforms over time.

“We want users to have the choice to raise a dispute to a body that is independent from governments and companies, and focused on ensuring platforms’ content policies are fairly and impartially applied,” said Thomas Hughes, inaugural CEO of the Appeals Centre and a former executive director for freedom of expression rights group Article 19.

With a team of experts, the new body will review each case within 90 days, and decide whether platforms’ decisions are consistent with their content policies, it said in a statement.

“We welcome the certification of new independent bodies by the Irish regulator,” said Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Commission. “We will support the effective and uniform development of this system across the whole EU to give all EU users stronger rights online.”

Dublin-based Appeals Centre, which has a one-time grant from the Oversight Board Trust, will be funded through fees charged to social media companies for each case. Users who raise a dispute will pay a nominal fee, which will be refunded if a decision is in their favour.

However, under the rules of DSA, online platforms may refuse to engage with such a dispute settlement body and it won’t have the power to impose a binding settlement on the parties.

The Appeals Centre will have a board of seven non-executive directors.