From today, if your account is suspended by Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube – and you are in the EU – you can challenge the decision to Appeals Centre Europe.
Every day, people find that their social media account has been suspended. So often these decisions are automated, and users are not told what they have done wrong.
Being banned from social media affects people’s lives: from losing touch with friends, to losing precious memories and – in some cases – cutting off a crucial source of income.
Recently, however, the EU’s Digital Services Act has given people a new right to refer account suspensions to certified, independent bodies like the Appeals Centre.
A New Way to Challenge Unfair Account Suspensions
If you are in the EU and Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube has suspended your account, you can challenge the decision to the Appeals Centre free-of-charge. If we do not think you broke the rules, your account may be restored.
- Click on this link and create an account on the Appeals Centre website. 2. Start a new dispute in our online portal.
- Select “The platform suspended an account that I want restored” 4. Provide basic information, like your username and when your account was suspended. 5. Submit your dispute.
- We request the last piece of content you posted which supposedly broke the rules. 7. Our expert team make a decision and send it to you and the platform. 8. While our decisions are non-binding, platforms are required – under EU law – to engage in good faith with the Appeals Centre.
In addition to account suspensions, you can also challenge a social media platform’s decision to remove your content, or their decision to leave harmful content online that you think should be taken down.
What’s Next?
So far this year, we’ve issued our first decisions, appointed new Directors from across the EU, co-founded a new network of dispute settlement bodies and expanded our scope to cover Instagram. This summer, we will publish our first transparency report – with new insights into the cases we have received and the decisions we have made. We will also expand to other social media platforms later this year.
The CEO of Appeals Centre Europe, Thomas Hughes said:
“Losing your social media account is more than an inconvenience, it affects people’s lives in fundamental ways. Yet – for too long – those with suspended accounts have been stuck between a rock and a hard place. Before now you could either appeal the decision to the platform – which often sticks with its original decision – or go to court at great expense.
Today, however, there’s a new option which is independent of platforms and free-of-charge: Appeals Centre Europe. So, if your account has been unfairly suspended, do something about it. Submit a dispute to the Appeals Centre and make your voice heard.”
