Statements from the Oversight Board Trust and Oversight Board Members on the announcement of the Appeals Centre Europe
October 8, 2024
Welcoming Appeals Centre Europe
Stephen Neal, Chair of Trustees, Oversight Board Trust
The Oversight Board Trust is pleased to welcome the establishment of Appeals Centre Europe, a new independent body set up to decide disputes raised by people and organisations in the European Union against the content moderation decisions of Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. As a certified body under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), the Appeals Centre will offer impartial, swift, affordable and accessible redress to users and will play an important role in the new regulatory landscape in the European Union.
The Oversight Board Trust provided a one-time grant to support the establishment of the Appeals Centre, which aims to receive users’ disputes in late 2024. The Appeals Centre is a separate legal entity to the Oversight Board and the Trust will not provide further grant funding. The two bodies will operate independently of one another and play distinct, but complementary, roles.
The Appeals Centre will settle individual users’ disputes on policy enforcement actions taken by Facebook, TikTok and YouTube in the European Union. It will deliver a decision to every eligible person and organisation that appeals, deciding if platforms’ decisions are consistent with their content policies, including the rules or exceptions they have in place that reference human rights.
The Oversight Board will continue to undertake deep-dive reviews into how Meta’s content moderation approach and policies on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, can be improved. The Board selects emblematic cases from across the world for review, making binding decisions on enforcement. The Board assesses whether Meta’s determinations are consistent with global human rights standards and recommends improvements which Meta must respond to publicly. When Meta implements these recommendations, they benefit users around the world.
Both entities are committed to improving user redress, transparency and upholding users' rights online. The Oversight Board Trust is pleased to support the set up and initial operations of Appeals Centre Europe. Once up and running, the Appeals Centre will be funded through fees charged to platforms.
With statutory regulation coming into force around the world, we recognise the importance of establishing and sustaining independent bodies that hold social media companies to account and protect users’ rights.
We look forward to the Oversight Board and Appeals Centre Europe exploring the intersection between their work in the months and years ahead.
Note from Oversight Board Members on Appeals Centre Europe
Oversight Board Statement
The Oversight Board is a global deliberative body of experts who operate at the intersection of content moderation and human rights to drive accountability in how Meta moderates content on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, with special attention to advancing freedom of expression. The Board recognizes the evolving regulatory landscape and is eager to understand and help shape how it will impact users globally, as well as the potential for it to drive greater transparency in how platforms work.
The Digital Services Act in Europe is one of several regulations around the world that aims to improve appeal options for users who wish to challenge the decisions of online platforms. The Board recognizes this important goal and looks forward to seeing how the external appeal processes develop in Europe and worldwide. Given the Board’s unique experience in complex content moderation and free expression, we will continue to explore synergies between our work, the emerging regulatory environment, and these new and distinct models of user redress, including the Appeals Centre Europe.
The Oversight Board’s work and that of the Appeals Centre are parallel but also distinct. The Appeals Centre will provide rapid responses to large numbers of individual user appeals from actions of social media companies within the EU. The Oversight Board operates on a global scale, focuses on a smaller number of the most difficult and contested questions in content moderation over Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The Board applies international human rights standards and principles of freedom of expression to the content policies of these platforms, makes binding decisions on Meta as well as providing non-binding recommendations to address policy and systemic issues thus going beyond the confines of single pieces of content. The Board also publishes in-depth public reports with the aim of sharing its learnings with the wider industry.
The Board hopes that new self-regulatory and co-regulatory initiatives can have a positive impact on content moderation for users globally. We remain committed to ensuring fair standards for users are applied consistently to all users of Meta’s platforms worldwide.
