Removing illegal social media posts is easier than you might think. The new European Digital Services Regulation (DSA) is fully effective from 17 February 2024 and brings several new rules for social networks to receive and deal with notices of illegal user content. Repeat offenders may be temporarily banned from the network's account as a consequence. However, notorious complainants are not exempt from penalties either; acceptance of their notifications may also be temporarily suspended. 

How much defamatory material, for example, does a social media network intercept in this way? From 25 April to 30 September 2023, Facebook received 69,984 notices of defamatory posts, of which 10,368 were removed. All of this, including the average processing time for notices (for Facebook, averaging under 28 hours), is publicly available statistics contained in each social network's regular Transparency Reports.  

And since transparency is key, the reports are published every six months, according to the DSA. In addition, the European Commission maintains a public database on its website, https://transparency.dsa.ec.europa.eu, which provides daily updates on reports of illegal content received.

Author: Hana Císlerová