📖 Content moderation glossary
What is an internal complaint-handling system?
In short
An internal complaint-handling system is the process that online platforms must provide under Article 20 of the Digital Services Act so that users can contest, electronically and free of charge, decisions to remove or restrict their content or suspend their account.
Complaints must be possible for at least six months after the user is informed of the decision. The platform must handle them in a timely, non-discriminatory, diligent and non-arbitrary way, reverse the decision without undue delay if the complaint shows it was wrong, and inform the user of the outcome and of other redress options, such as out-of-court dispute settlement.
Crucially, decisions on complaints must be taken under the supervision of appropriately qualified staff and not solely on the basis of automated means. In other words, an AI can help, but a person must be accountable for the review.
Example: a user whose account was suspended for spam explains that he was posting links to his own local association. A moderator reviews his history, finds the suspension disproportionate, lifts it and replies with an explanation.
At OpenModeration, human review of contested decisions is one of the DSA building blocks: it is carried out by our team, and you see each complaint and its outcome in real time in the console.