Maltese, Irish dispute bodies to rule on social media complaints

German and Maltese bodies established to handle disputes under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) as so called out-of-court dispute settlement bodies, will rule on their first social media appeal cases as soon as this week, the authorities told Euronews. 

The bodies were the first across Europe to be approved this year under the DSA – the EU’s platform regulation – along with one in Hungary. The Irish media regulator approved its first such body for Ireland last week.

The aim of such entities is to provide an alternative to often costly and time-consuming legal routes to redress and to reduce the burden on regulators and courts. 

The DSA became applicable to the largest online platforms in August 2023, and to all other platforms last February. It obliges companies to meet transparency requirements about ads and content moderation, for example. 

The Germany body, User Rights, received around 250 complaints after it was established in August, its co-founder Niklas Eder told Euronews. 

It reviews complaints from users – mostly Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn – whose social media posts have been deleted or moderated by platforms under German law and violations of platform terms and conditions. 

Malta

Malta’s ADROIT – which was set up in 2015 as a general dispute body – was certified in July as a dispute settlement body under the DSA by the Maltese competent authority, focusing mainly on commercial disputes.

“We have received just under 1,000 complaints so far and the majority of those have become active cases. The first decisions have been issued and sent to the parties,” its Director Jan Stockhausen said, without disclosing the names of the platforms involved. 

“At the moment, we are engaged in talks with several large platforms to make the whole process more efficient and scalable,” Stockhausen added.

Last week, the Irish Coimisiún na Meán, the national regulator in charge of overseeing DSA compliance of platforms in Ireland, certified Appeals Centre Europe to take on similar cases.

It will initially deal with disputes from people and organisations in the EU from Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, with the goal to add more over time.

Questions arose over the funding it received from the Meta-backed Oversight Board Trust: it provided the Centre with a one-time grant “allowing for its swift establishment.” 

A spokesperson for the European Commission said in response that organisations applying to become an out-of-court dispute settlement body under the DSA, must fulfil certain conditions, “including expertise, efficiency, accessibility, impartiality and independence.”

“We will support the effective and uniform development of this system across the whole EU to give all EU users stronger rights online. The DSA gives users unprecedented new powers and rights. The new independent out-of-court settlement bodies allow users to contest content moderation decisions with online platforms,” the Commission said.

The body’s certificates to rule on complaints are valid for a limited time.