Dear everyone,
The European Commission has published draft guidelines on the trusted flagger mechanism under Article 22 of the Digital Services Act (DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) and is inviting targeted feedback until 26 June 2026. The trusted flagger mechanism allows designated civil society organisations, public bodies, and expert entities to submit notices of illegal content to online platforms through a priority channel. Platforms must process these notices without undue delay.
The guidelines will be finalised later this year and while non-binding, they carry significant interpretive weight. For example, they touch on the balance between removing illegal content and protecting freedom of expression, the independence and accountability of trusted entities acting in the public interest, and the technical obligations of platforms that disproportionately affect smaller civil society actors.
Cross-cutting PPEU positions for this paper:
- transparency and accountability of trusted entities;
- protection of freedom of expression from over-removal;
- independence of civil society from platform funding;
- access to the mechanism for under-resourced and multilingual organisations;
- proportionality of notice and action processes.
We would appreciate any input or feedback you may have on these areas.
Deadline for inputs: 23 June
Please find further information on the consultation at the link below: Commission seeks feedback on draft trusted flaggers guidelines under the Digital Services Act | Shaping Europe’s digital future
I offer the following recommendations to build upon our core principles for the DSA Trusted Flagger guidelines:
1.Mandate Clear Penalties for Over-Flagging to Protect Free Speech: The guidelines need to set real consequences for trusted entities that constantly send in wrong or overly broad notices. Right now, platforms are under massive pressure to just “delete on doubt,” which leads to quiet censorship. If a trusted flagger hits a specific error rate—like having 10% of their flags rejected or overturned in a single quarter—it should automatically trigger a suspension and a review of their status by the coordinator.
2.Ban Fully Automated AI Crawlers from Priority Channels: Trusted flagger status should strictly require human eyes. The guidelines must explicitly say that these groups cannot use fully automated AI bots or web scrapers to mass-submit high-priority notices without a real person checking them first. Letting automated bots run wild on these priority channels is just going to lead to massive accidental takedowns of legal speech, satire, and everyday internet discussion.
3.Require Independent Funding Audits to Prevent Corporate Capture: To keep these groups truly independent, we need clear boundaries on where they get their money. Any group applying for trusted flagger status should have to disclose all their platform partnerships, contracts, and tech funding. A group shouldn’t get to keep this special, privileged status if a massive chunk of their budget comes straight from the very tech platforms they are supposed to be keeping an eye on. They need to answer to the public, not corporate donors.
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