Tech companies are not making it easy for social media users who want to complain to the Appeals Centre Europe, RTÉ’s Work & Technology Correspondent Brian O'Donovan has told Behind the Story.
It comes as the Dublin-based social media appeals body revealed today that it has issued more than 1,500 decisions since it began operating in November 2024.
The centre, which hears complaints from social media users in Ireland and across the EU on issues such as account suspensions and the removal of content, has issued its first transparency report.
The complaints currently relate to Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and YouTube.
It shows that in more than three-quarters of its decisions, it overturned social media companies and ruled in favour of users.
Read more: Nudity, bullying and hate speech among appeals complaints
The main areas of complaint were around the areas of hate speech, adult nudity and bullying.
Brian O'Donovan told Behind the Story it is not very surprising people have not heard of it.
"The centre itself today in its report describes itself as Europe’s best-kept secret," he said.
"That’s the point they’re trying to make".
Brian said the centre was set up as a dispute settlement body to avoid people having to go to court.
"It got its licence from Coimisiún na Meán - our media regulator - it set up this very fancy-looking website.
"People can go on and lodge a complaint."
The complaints can range from a social media company taking something down a user believes they should not have, if a platform refuses to take something down or to appeal a suspended user’s account.
However, Brian says there are a couple of problems with how the centre operates.
"Its decisions are not legally binding", he explains.
"Another thing the platforms are supposed to do under the DSA [EU Digital Services Act] is to publicise the fact that this crowd exists [and] make it easy to click on them and lodge your complaint.
"Are they doing that? No, they’re not".
What is the stick?
Brian said there is a "wider goal" for the centre to consider.
"They will start amassing all these transparency reports as the years go along - they will have reams of research and tables of the kinds of issues that are being highlighted.
"Those will the go back to the people that gave them their licence in the first place here, or they could send it to the European Commission, and these are the bodies that can actually tell these platforms [what to do]."
Brian said while there is a lack of punitive measures against these companies, he is not sure what the answer is.
"Meta [and] TikTok they have been fined hundreds of millions of euro, if not in the billions sometimes, by the likes of the Data Protection Commission – do they change their behaviour? Not all the time.
"What is the stick for a social media company that has turnover heading into the trillions?"
Katie Hannon and Fran McNulty also spoke to RTÉ Business Correspondent Adam Maguire about his new book, The Bailout Babies, where they discuss what the future holds for all of us if the next generation cannot afford a house.
You can listen to Behind the Story which is available on the RTÉ Radio Player.
You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.
