Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 17 September 2025
Committee on European Union Affairs
Engagement with Coimisiún na Meán
2:00 am
Dr. John Evans:
They should. The way the system is set up means that if you flag content with the platform, you are supposed to get a decision back on whether it is being taken down. You can then appeal that decision within the platform. You may get the same response back, but at least you have that right of appeal. There is then a third element, if you want to go that far. The DSA architecture provides for out-of-court dispute settlement. We certified the Appeals Centre Europe, ACE, which has been up and running since just before Christmas. There are a number of other settlement dispute bodies. What they are doing is putting out decisions about whether, for example, a particular platform's content was contravening its terms and conditions. It is all about data for regulators. The pattern that we will see coming out of those three mechanisms is important, but if a person is not happy with a platform, perhaps because they did not get a response to their initial flag, they can come to us with a complaint. If they are not happy with the appeals process they have experienced, they can also come to us with a complaint. We will build a picture and figure out our priorities from there.
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