European Body Set up to Resolve Disputes With TikTok, YouTube and Facebook

The logos of mobile apps Facebook and Google on a tablet in Lille, France, on Oct. 1, 2019. Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images

Social media users in the European Union unhappy with decisions taken by TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook about the removal of posts or videos will now be able to appeal to a new body.

Appeals Center Europe, which was announced on Tuesday, is an “out of court dispute settlement body” that has been certified by regulators in the Republic of Ireland but will arbitrate in content moderation disputes across the 27-nation bloc.

The body, which will be based in Dublin and is funded by a one-off 15 million euros ($16.5 million) grant from Meta—which owns Facebook—is headed by CEO Thomas Hughes, a former executive director with Article 19, a freedom of expression non-profit.

Hughes said it would hear appeals about “everything from violence and incitement to hate speech to bullying and harassment.”

“It could be everything from a case that relates to a head of state all the way through to a neighborly dispute,” he added.

‘Nominal’ Fee For Complainants

Users who complain will pay a “nominal” fee of five euros ($5.50), which will be refunded if the body rules in their favor.

Hughes said the fee was designed to prevent people from “gaming or abusing” the system.

The tech companies will be charged 95 euros ($104) for every case the body hears.

Hughes was formerly chairman of Meta’s Oversight Board, a quasi-independent body which was set up in 2020 to adjudicate on content moderation issues involving Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Appeals Center Europe will not initially handle disputes involving Instagram, Threads or Snapchat, although they may be added at a later date.

It will start receiving disputes from TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube users before the end of the year.

While Facebook is owned by Meta, TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance and YouTube by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

Under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), tech companies and social media platforms have to work with dispute resolution bodies and comply with their decisions.

There are no plans for the body to handle complaints against X, which retains its own complaint-handling mechanism and whose owner, Elon Musk, is fiercely defensive of the right to free speech.

In July the EU issued preliminary findings that X had violated the DSA over restricting data access for researchers, lack of advertising transparency, and the design of its “blue check” verified account system leaving users open to deception.

Brussels wanted to give EU citizens a way of challenging decisions made by the Big Tech companies and the new body will be tasked with balancing freedom of speech with online risks, especially to children and those with mental health issues.

Companies that ignore the DSA are at risk of hefty fines.

Many Silicon Valley-based tech companies have their European headquarters in Dublin, which is why the Irish capital was chosen as the natural base for the appeal body.

‘Fairly And Impartially Applied’

Hughes said, “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.”

Last month Meta’s Oversight Board issued a ruling on three separate Facebook posts that used the Palestinian phrase “ from the river to the sea,” which is perceived by many Jews as anti-Semitic.

The board said they did not break Meta’s rules on “hate speech, violence, and incitement or dangerous organizations and individuals.”

They ruled that although all three posts contained, “contextual signs of solidarity with Palestinians” there was, “no language calling for violence or exclusion.”

Meta’s Oversight Board will continue to operate and Hughes said the two bodies would, “point in the same direction in terms of platform accountability and transparency, user rights.”

Hughes said decisions would be made within 90 days but the aim would be for them to be heard much quicker.

Appeals Center Europe will have a board of seven non-executive directors.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.