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

An independent body, supported by Meta Platforms' Oversight Board, has a certification from the media regulator in Ireland to resolve appeals against policy violation decisions of social media companies in the European Union.

Formed as a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), Appeals Centre Europe will initially decide cases relating to Facebook, ByteDance's TikTok and Alphabet's YouTube, and will include more social media platforms over time.

With a team of experts, the body will apply human review to every case within 90 days, and decide whether platforms' decisions are consistent with their content policies, it said in a statement.

Dublin-based Appeals Centre, which has a one-time grant from the Oversight Board, 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 the decision is in their favour.

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

The former director of the Oversight Board, Thomas Hughes, is taking on a new role as the inaugural CEO of the Appeals Centre.

"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," Hughes said.

The Appeals Centre will have a board of seven non-executive directors and will start receiving disputes from users before the end of the year.