The Europe Call Center, the new arbiter for European users of Facebook, TikTok and YouTube – Social networks > Marketing

Users of social networks find themselves very helpless to deal with a range of problems. Hacked account, digital identity theft, harassment… or even more radically deleted account.

The Appeals Center is among the first out-of-court dispute resolution bodies legally certified under Article 21 of the European Digital Services Regulation. Thomas Hughes, former director of Meta’s supervisory board, will lead the organization.

Concretely, l’Appeals Centre will offer by the end of the year, a service provided by experts, to make decisions in accordance with the platforms’ content policies.

“The body is initially financed by the governance of the Meta supervisory board, which the company created in 2020 to have an independent look at content moderation, after several scandals. However, it will be completely separate from Meta’s supervisory board, which is made up of 20 international members, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and former political leaders. we learn in an AFP dispatch.

The goal is to make the ability to challenge the decisions of social media giants more accessible. And the Appeals Center team will be responsible for determining whether or not the decision made by the social network complies with its content policies, as well as any rules or exceptions that refer to human rights.

Concretely, a person who chooses to contact the call center will only have to pay 5 euros to present their grievances, refundable if the decision is in their favor, while the platforms will have to pay 100 euros for each new file, Thomas Hughes told Le Monde, specifying that ultimately the new body should be entirely financed by these costs.

In the coming months, the Appeals Center will recruit a team of experts in Dublin, whom it will train in accordance with the philosophy of its mission. The launch is expected to take place by the end of 2024.