Meta repeatedly snubs EU body over Facebook and Instagram user bans
Summary
An independent group called Appeals Centre Europe reviewed thousands of complaints from social media users in the EU who said they were wrongly banned from Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Meta, the company that owns these platforms, rarely responded to the group’s requests for evidence, making it hard to review the bans. The group also found that hate speech content often stayed on social media sites despite rules against it.Key Facts
- Appeals Centre Europe examined about 4,600 cases of users claiming wrongful bans on Meta’s platforms but received evidence from Meta in fewer than 100 cases.
- Under EU law, social media companies are expected to work "in good faith" with dispute bodies, but Meta’s cooperation was very limited.
- More than 500 people contacted the BBC last year reporting they were banned from Facebook or Instagram without a way to appeal.
- Users described serious impacts from bans, including worries about police involvement and harm to their businesses.
- The Appeals Centre reported that over two-thirds of hate speech content flagged was not removed by platforms, with TikTok having the highest rate of hate speech left up.
- Examples of unremoved hate content include racist comments on Instagram, antisemitic videos on YouTube, and misinformation videos on TikTok related to the Russia-Ukraine war.
- Social media companies failed to provide content for review in 72% of over 10,000 cases involving flagged content.
- The dispute body disagreed with platforms’ decisions about 59% of the time when it was able to review the content.
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