Appeals Centre Europe, a Dublin-based social media appeals body, has received more than 30,000 complaints since it began operating in November 2024.
The centre hears disputes from social media users in Ireland and across the EU on issues such as account suspensions and the removal of content.
It has issued its latest transparency report showing that between April 2025 and March 2026 it received 24,000 disputes, with more than 12,000 of these within its scope.
The top areas of complaint related to hate speech, account suspensions, adult nudity, misinformation, and fraud and scams.
It received nine times as many eligible disputes in March 2026 than in April 2025.
During the period in question, it issued decisions on more than 10,000 disputes.
In the nearly 3,000 decisions where it was able to review the content, it disagreed with platforms 59% of the time.
Despite having received more than 5,000 eligible disputes from users looking to challenge account suspensions, by the end of March 2026, the Appeals Centre said it had only made decisions after receiving the relevant content in fewer than 150 of these cases.
For the remaining cases, it did not receive the content from the platform and made a "default decision" in the user's favour.
"Social media platforms need to change this by sending us the content and allowing users to challenge account suspensions under the EU’s Digital Services Act," the Appeals Centre said.
The decisions of the Appeals Centre Europe are not legally binding on platforms.
When it comes to the removal of harmful content, the centre said it is only aware of a "handful of cases" where platforms have implemented its decisions.
"For the rest they have either rejected our decisions or not responded at all," the centre said.
"This means that, in the vast majority of these cases, the violating content remains online, causing continued harm to the affected people and communities," it added.
The centre also said it is still not receiving consistent data about whether platforms have implemented its decisions.
"However, we are pushing platforms to provide this, so users can understand the final outcome of their dispute," according to the transparency report.
Hate speech
In 70% of cases where the Appeals Centre Europe reviewed content that was reported as hate speech, it disagreed with the platform’s decision to leave it up.
It was most likely to disagree with TikTok, followed by Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
The cases included hateful content targeting religious minorities, Roma people, migrants, and LGBTQI+ communities.
Examples of decisions where it disagreed with platforms included racist comments about Black footballers which were left up on Instagram, antisemitic videos on YouTube that were shared by prominent figures in Poland, an AI-generated video about the Russia-Ukraine war which was left up despite breaking TikTok’s rules on misinformation, and pictures by a photographer from Czechia which were wrongly removed under Facebook's rules on adult nudity and sexual activity.
"Online hate and harassment have real-world consequences for many people and communities," said CEO of Appeals Centre Europe Thomas Hughes.
"In more than two-thirds of our decisions about hate speech, we found that platforms failed to enforce their own policies and left up hateful content.
"This goes to show that platforms don’t always get it right," he added.
"If you’re in the EU, you can challenge a platform’s decisions free of charge to Appeals Centre Europe and get an expert, impartial review," Mr Hughes said.
Complaints from Ireland
Ireland ranked 6th out of 27 EU countries for eligible disputes received per head of population.
The vast majority of eligible disputes received from Ireland were about account suspensions but as platforms were unable or unwilling to share content related to account suspensions, it did not receive the content that caused the suspension in the vast majority of cases.
This led to a high number of default decisions in favour of users.
Between April 2025 and March 2026, the centre received more than 500 disputes from people and organisations in Ireland challenging decisions by social media platforms, and 233 of these disputes fell within its scope.
The Appeals Centre has been certified by the Irish media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, as an out-of-court dispute settlement body under the Digital Services Act.
The start-up funding for the centre was provided through a one-time grant from the Meta Oversight Board Trust, but the centre has insisted that it is independent of Meta.
The centre is now funded through fees charged to social media companies for each case.
The Appeals Centre currently covers Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok and YouTube.
