Appeals under the DSA - what actually changed?
Last week, we discussed what the DSA actually changed in notifications sent by online platforms during the content moderation process. This week, we will turn our attention to appeals, or what DSA Article 20 calls ‘Complaints’.
Appeals are closely dependent on notifications. In many ways they are two sides of the same coin and a general maxim applies of “no notification, no appeal”. If no one tells you that your content has been moderated, or what’s been done with your report, it won’t be easy to find out where to go next.
As with notifications, most major platforms had good appeals systems in place, as the same rule of thumb as applied as did to notifications: the more severe a moderation action, the more likely that action would be appealable: content deletions and account bans could for the most part be appealed prior to the DSA.
So what did in fact change?
All moderation decisions must now be appealable and the appeals mechanism must be user-friendly and easy to access. It is no longer at the discretion of platforms to decide whether a given action may be appealed or not; the DSA decides this.
Users now have up to 180 days to appeal moderation decisions. This covers all moderations decisions and does not distinguish between the severity of the action or or the duration of the restriction. Prior to the DSA, the general industry standard hovered around the 90 day mark. The DSA has essentially doubled the prevailing appeals window without exception.
Appeals for reporters of violative content. This was not standard across industry prior to the DSA. I can recall Facebook experimenting with reporter appeals for content-level reports in the period around 2018, and they existed in some other niche reporting flows, but they were never introduced en masse as a default.
The DSA also makes provision for off-platform appeals facilities, such as Out-of-Court settlements. How this will work in practice though is yet to be determined.
| Appeal Feature | Pre-DSA | Post-DSA Article 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of appealable moderation actions | Most severe actions: account bans, content deletions | All moderation actions without exception |
| Appeals window | Circa 90 days across platforms | 180 days without exception |
| Easy to access and user-friendly | Generally yes, when available | Generally yes but room for improvement on some platforms |
| Reporter Appeals | Rare | Must be generally available |
| Info on Out of Court Settlements and other rights | No known precedent | Generally in place but many details still to be determined |
To summarise, the DSA makes appeals compulsory for VLOPs, for both uploaders and reporter, and sets the deadline for appeals at 180 days. Previously platforms had some leeway to set these as they saw fit. That is no longer the case.
Liam Melia is the Managing Director of Pelidum Trust & Safety
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