keyboard_tab Digital Service Act 2022/2065 EN

1.   Providers of intermediary_services shall make publicly available, in a machine-readable format and in an easily accessible manner, at least once a year, clear, easily comprehensible reports on any content_moderation that they engaged in during the relevant period. Those reports shall include, in particular, information on the following, as applicable:

(a)

for providers of intermediary_services, the number of orders received from Member States’ authorities including orders issued in accordance with Articles 9 and 10, categorised by the type of illegal_content concerned, the Member State issuing the order, and the median time needed to inform the authority issuing the order, or any other authority specified in the order, of its receipt, and to give effect to the order;

(b)

for providers of hosting services, the number of notices submitted in accordance with Article 16, categorised by the type of alleged illegal_content concerned, the number of notices submitted by trusted flaggers, any action taken pursuant to the notices by differentiating whether the action was taken on the basis of the law or the terms_and_conditions of the provider, the number of notices processed by using automated means and the median time needed for taking the action;

(c)

for providers of intermediary_services, meaningful and comprehensible information about the content_moderation engaged in at the providers’ own initiative, including the use of automated tools, the measures taken to provide training and assistance to persons in charge of content_moderation, the number and type of measures taken that affect the availability, visibility and accessibility of information provided by the recipients of the service and the recipients’ ability to provide information through the service, and other related restrictions of the service; the information reported shall be categorised by the type of illegal_content or violation of the terms_and_conditions of the service provider, by the detection method and by the type of restriction applied;

(d)

for providers of intermediary_services, the number of complaints received through the internal complaint-handling systems in accordance with the provider’s terms_and_conditions and additionally, for providers of online_platforms, in accordance with Article 20, the basis for those complaints, decisions taken in respect of those complaints, the median time needed for taking those decisions and the number of instances where those decisions were reversed;

(e)	any use made of automated means for the purpose of content_moderation, including a qualitative description, a specification of the precise purposes, indicators of the accuracy and the possible rate of error of the automated means used in fulfilling those purposes, and any safeguards applied.

2.   Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply to providers of intermediary_services that qualify as micro or small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC and which are not very large online_platforms within the meaning of Article 33 of this Regulation.

3.   The Commission may adopt implementing acts to lay down templates concerning the form, content and other details of reports pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article, including harmonised reporting periods. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 88.

1.   Providers of online_platforms shall take the necessary technical and organisational measures to ensure that notices submitted by trusted flaggers, acting within their designated area of expertise, through the mechanisms referred to in Article 16, are given priority and are processed and decided upon without undue delay.

2.   The status of ‘trusted flagger’ under this Regulation shall be awarded, upon application by any entity, by the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State in which the applicant is established, to an applicant that has demonstrated that it meets all of the following conditions:

(a)	it has particular expertise and competence for the purposes of detecting, identifying and notifying illegal_content;

(b)	it is independent from any provider of online_platforms;

(c)	it carries out its activities for the purposes of submitting notices diligently, accurately and objectively.

3.   trusted flaggers shall publish, at least once a year easily comprehensible and detailed reports on notices submitted in accordance with Article 16 during the relevant period. The report shall list at least the number of notices categorised by:

(a)	the identity of the provider of hosting services,

(b)	the type of allegedly illegal_content notified,

(c)	the action taken by the provider.

Those reports shall include an explanation of the procedures in place to ensure that the trusted flagger retains its independence.

trusted flaggers shall send those reports to the awarding Digital Services Coordinator, and shall make them publicly available. The information in those reports shall not contain personal data.

4.   Digital Services Coordinators shall communicate to the Commission and the Board the names, addresses and email addresses of the entities to which they have awarded the status of the trusted flagger in accordance with paragraph 2 or whose trusted flagger status they have suspended in accordance with paragraph 6 or revoked in accordance with paragraph 7.

5.   The Commission shall publish the information referred to in paragraph 4 in a publicly available database, in an easily accessible and machine-readable format, and shall keep the database up to date.

6.   Where a provider of online_platforms has information indicating that a trusted flagger has submitted a significant number of insufficiently precise, inaccurate or inadequately substantiated notices through the mechanisms referred to in Article 16, including information gathered in connection to the processing of complaints through the internal complaint-handling systems referred to in Article 20(4), it shall communicate that information to the Digital Services Coordinator that awarded the status of trusted flagger to the entity concerned, providing the necessary explanations and supporting documents. Upon receiving the information from the provider of online_platforms, and if the Digital Services Coordinator considers that there are legitimate reasons to open an investigation, the status of trusted flagger shall be suspended during the period of the investigation. That investigation shall be carried out without undue delay.

7.   The Digital Services Coordinator that awarded the status of trusted flagger to an entity shall revoke that status if it determines, following an investigation either on its own initiative or on the basis information received from third parties, including the information provided by a provider of online_platforms pursuant to paragraph 6, that the entity no longer meets the conditions set out in paragraph 2. Before revoking that status, the Digital Services Coordinator shall afford the entity an opportunity to react to the findings of its investigation and its intention to revoke the entity’s status as trusted flagger.

8.   The Commission, after consulting the Board, shall, where necessary, issue guidelines to assist providers of online_platforms and Digital Services Coordinators in the application of paragraphs 2, 6 and 7.

1.   Providers of very large online_platforms and of very large online_search_engines shall put in place reasonable, proportionate and effective mitigation measures, tailored to the specific systemic risks identified pursuant to Article 34, with particular consideration to the impacts of such measures on fundamental rights. Such measures may include, where applicable:

(a)	adapting the design, features or functioning of their services, including their online_interfaces;

(b)	adapting their terms_and_conditions and their enforcement;

(c)

adapting content_moderation processes, including the speed and quality of processing notices related to specific types of illegal_content and, where appropriate, the expeditious removal of, or the disabling of access to, the content notified, in particular in respect of illegal hate speech or cyber violence, as well as adapting any relevant decision-making processes and dedicated resources for content_moderation;

(d)	testing and adapting their algorithmic systems, including their recommender_systems;

(e)	adapting their advertising systems and adopting targeted measures aimed at limiting or adjusting the presentation of advertisements in association with the service they provide;

(f)	reinforcing the internal processes, resources, testing, documentation, or supervision of any of their activities in particular as regards detection of systemic risk;

(g)	initiating or adjusting cooperation with trusted flaggers in accordance with Article 22 and the implementation of the decisions of out-of-court dispute settlement bodies pursuant to Article 21;

(h)	initiating or adjusting cooperation with other providers of online_platforms or of online_search_engines through the codes of conduct and the crisis protocols referred to in Articles 45 and 48 respectively;

(i)	taking awareness-raising measures and adapting their online_interface in order to give recipients of the service more information;

(j)	taking targeted measures to protect the rights of the child, including age verification and parental control tools, tools aimed at helping minors signal abuse or obtain support, as appropriate;

(k)

ensuring that an item of information, whether it constitutes a generated or manipulated image, audio or video that appreciably resembles existing persons, objects, places or other entities or events and falsely appears to a person to be authentic or truthful is distinguishable through prominent markings when presented on their online_interfaces, and, in addition, providing an easy to use functionality which enables recipients of the service to indicate such information.

2.   The Board, in cooperation with the Commission, shall publish comprehensive reports, once a year. The reports shall include the following:

(a)	identification and assessment of the most prominent and recurrent systemic risks reported by providers of very large online_platforms and of very large online_search_engines or identified through other information sources, in particular those provided in compliance with Articles 39, 40 and 42;

(b)	best practices for providers of very large online_platforms and of very large online_search_engines to mitigate the systemic risks identified.

Those reports shall present systemic risks broken down by the Member States in which they occurred and in the Union as a whole, as applicable.

3.   The Commission, in cooperation with the Digital Services Coordinators, may issue guidelines on the application of paragraph 1 in relation to specific risks, in particular to present best practices and recommend possible measures, having due regard to the possible consequences of the measures on fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of all parties involved. When preparing those guidelines the Commission shall organise public consultations.

1.   The Commission shall consult the Board, and shall support and promote the development and implementation of voluntary standards set by relevant European and international standardisation bodies, at least in respect of the following:

(a)	electronic submission of notices under Article 16;

(b)	templates, design and process standards for communicating with the recipients of the service in a user-friendly manner on restrictions resulting from terms_and_conditions and changes thereto;

(c)	electronic submission of notices by trusted flaggers under Article 22, including through application programming interfaces;

(d)	specific interfaces, including application programming interfaces, to facilitate compliance with the obligations set out in Articles 39 and 40;

(e)	auditing of very large online_platforms and of very large online_search_engines pursuant to Article 37;

(f)	interoperability of the advertisement repositories referred to in Article 39(2);

(g)	transmission of data between advertising intermediaries in support of transparency obligations pursuant to Article 26(1), points (b), (c) and (d);

(h)	technical measures to enable compliance with obligations relating to advertising contained in this Regulation, including the obligations regarding prominent markings for advertisements and commercial_communications referred to in Article 26;

(i)	choice interfaces and presentation of information on the main parameters of different types of recommender_systems, in accordance with Articles 27 and 38;

(j)	standards for targeted measures to protect minors online.

2.   The Commission shall support the update of the standards in the light of technological developments and the behaviour of the recipients of the services in question. The relevant information regarding the update of the standards shall be publicly available and easily accessible.

1.   The Board shall be composed of Digital Services Coordinators who shall be represented by high-level officials. The failure by one or more Member States to designate a Digital Services Coordinator shall not prevent the Board from performing its tasks under this Regulation. Where provided for by national law, other competent authorities entrusted with specific operational responsibilities for the application and enforcement of this Regulation alongside the Digital Services Coordinator may participate in the Board. Other national authorities may be invited to the meetings, where the issues discussed are of relevance for them.

2.   The Board shall be chaired by the Commission. The Commission shall convene the meetings and prepare the agenda in accordance with the tasks of the Board pursuant to this Regulation and in line with its rules of procedure. When the Board is requested to adopt a recommendation pursuant to this Regulation, it shall immediately make the request available to other Digital Services Coordinators through the information sharing system set out in Article 85.

3.   Each Member State shall have one vote. The Commission shall not have voting rights.

The Board shall adopt its acts by simple majority. When adopting a recommendation to the Commission referred to in Article 36(1), first subparagraph, the Board shall vote within 48 hours after the request of the Chair of the Board.

4.   The Commission shall provide administrative and analytical support for the activities of the Board pursuant to this Regulation.

5.   The Board may invite experts and observers to attend its meetings, and may cooperate with other Union bodies, offices, agencies and advisory groups, as well as external experts as appropriate. The Board shall make the results of this cooperation publicly available.

6.   The Board may consult interested parties, and shall make the results of such consultation publicly available.

7.   The Board shall adopt its rules of procedure, following the consent of the Commission.