Users of Facebook, TikTok and YouTube will be able to refer a new instance in the event of disputes with these platforms. Called the Europe Call Center, it will provide an independent look at complaints.
Deleted accounts, reports for inciting hatred, harassment… Everything is not rosy on social networks, far from it! Internet users often find themselves struggling with large platforms and their sometimes obscure or politically oriented rules. Whether it is the blatant lack of moderation on X, the censorship of Facebook and Instagram towards certain political voices or, on the contrary, the highlighting of problematic and harmful content on TikTok, it is sometimes very difficult to make your voice heard!
This is where the European Call Center (Appeals Center Europe) will come into play; a brand new extrajudicial body will be responsible, before the end of the year, for ultimately deciding disputes between European users of Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, as reported BFMTV. Its aim is to provide an alternative to often costly and time-consuming legal avenues, while reducing the burden on regulators and courts in handling appeals against policy violations on social media platforms.
European call center: a new solution for resolving disputes
The Europe Call Center will have seven members. Firstly, it is financed by the governance of Meta’s supervisory board, which the company created in 2020 after several scandals to take an independent look at content moderation. However, it will be completely separate from Meta’s supervisory board, which is made up of twenty international members, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and former political leaders.
European users will be able to contact the Center in order to appeal decisions taken by Facebook, Tiktok and Youtube concerning content reported for harassment or incitement to hatred, but also on account deletions. An in-house team of experts will apply human review to each case.
Once launched, the Center will be funded by fees charged to social media companies for each case, at 100 euros for each new case. The user who raises a dispute will only have to pay the symbolic sum of 5 euros, which will be refunded if the decision of the Appeal Center is in their favor. Ultimately, the new body should be entirely financed by the social media concerned.
Call center Europe: a measure resulting from the DSA
The creation of this structure meets the requirements of the European Digital Services Regulation (DSA) – which applies to all platforms with more than 45 million monthly users since last February. Indeed, the legislation provides in particular that their users have access to an extrajudicial body to resolve disputes.
The DSA “offers the opportunity to shift the balance of power between users, platforms and governments by giving individuals the opportunity to question decisions made about what they post and what content they access online”indicated Thomas Hughes, former director of the supervisory board of Meta, who will lead the organization. “This is a game changer“. The aim is to extend the area of expertise of this new entity “to other social networks as time goes on”.
Thomas Hughes wants to be reassuring. The goal is not to “replace the traditional judicial system”he insists, but to make “more accessible the ability to challenge decisions” tech giants. Indeed, current legal processes “are more expensive, slower, heavier and not necessarily adapted to the digital age”. Users will, however, still have the option to take actual legal action if they wish.