Reports and appeals under the DSA

1Points of contact

For authorities (art. 11)

[email protected]. For the European Commission, the Digital Services Coordinators (in the Netherlands the ACM) and other authorities. In Dutch or English.

For users (art. 12)

The same address, and the Report button on the site and in the app. You get an answer from a person, not only from a machine. In Dutch or English.

Legal representative

Not needed: PartyPPL is established in the European Union, in the Netherlands. The details are in the colophon.

2Reporting illegal content

If you see something on PartyPPL you think is illegal, such as a copyright infringement, defamation, a scam, a privacy violation or images of a minor, report it. You do not need an account for that.

With the Report button

On every chat message, forum post, review, report, question and answer, photo and profile. You pick a reason; the report goes straight to moderation.

By e-mail

To [email protected] with "melding" in the subject. Do this if you want to explain why something is illegal, or if it is about an event, a page or a profile.

A report by e-mail contains, as article 16 DSA asks:

1. why you think the content is illegal;
2. the exact link, or enough to find the content;
3. your name and e-mail address, except for child sexual abuse: that may be anonymous;
4. a statement that your report is accurate and complete to the best of your knowledge.

What happens then:

1. You get an acknowledgement, by e-mail by the next working day at the latest.
2. A person assesses the report, carefully and objectively, normally within 24 hours and at the latest within five working days.
3. You hear what we decided and what options you have if you disagree.

Content that is not illegal but breaks the house rules we deal with too. Same route.

Someone's life or safety in danger? Call 112. If we receive information pointing to a criminal offence that threatens someone's life or safety, we report it to the police at once (art. 18 DSA).

3What we tell you about a decision

If we remove content, hold it, make it less visible, or suspend or delete an account, the person concerned gets a statement of reasons (art. 17 DSA). It says:

• which measure we took, what it covers and how long it lasts;
• the facts and circumstances we decided on, and whether it followed a report;
• whether automated means were used;
• for illegal content: why we think it is illegal; for a breach of our rules: which rule;
• what you can do about it: an appeal to us, out-of-court dispute settlement, and the courts.

You get the statement in the app or by e-mail, at the latest when the measure takes effect. Only if we cannot reach you, or an authority asks us not to yet, is it left out.

4Automated means

Public text gets an automatic score when posted, on signals of scams, payment requests, contact details, drug dealing, hate, threats and spam. If it is high, the text waits until a person looks at it, and the writer sees that it is waiting. Nobody is removed or suspended automatically. How it works is in the house rules.

5Appealing

If you disagree with a decision, you can appeal up to six months after you heard of it, free of charge (art. 20 DSA). That is possible against:

• removing, holding or reducing the visibility of your content;
• suspending or deleting your account;
• our decision to take no action on your report.

Every decision comes with a form: the e-mail and the notification about it link to a page of its own (partyppl.nl/bezwaar/...) with the reason and a button to appeal. That page works without logging in, so also when your account is suspended. You can also mail [email protected] with "bezwaar" in the subject, your username, the decision and why you disagree. Someone other than the person who decided looks at it, and not only a machine. Within five working days you hear our decision, with an explanation. If we got it wrong, we reverse it straight away.

6Disputes out of court

If you still disagree, you can choose a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body (art. 21 DSA). Such a body is certified by a Digital Services Coordinator, in the Netherlands the ACM; the European Commission keeps a list.

• We cooperate in good faith. The outcome is not binding, but we take it seriously.
• For you it is free or costs at most a small amount. If you are proved right, we pay the fees the body charges.
• You can always go to court too, before or after such a procedure.

7Measures against misuse

We stop two kinds of misuse (art. 23 DSA):

Repeated manifestly illegal content

If someone frequently posts content that is clearly illegal, we suspend their account for a reasonable period, after a warning.

Repeated manifestly unfounded reports or appeals

If someone frequently files reports or appeals that are clearly baseless, we stop handling theirs for a while, after a warning.

We look at the number of cases, how serious they are, how that compares to everything someone posts or reports, and whether it seems deliberate. The duration is in the statement of reasons, and you can appeal against that too.

8Transparency and our size

As long as PartyPPL is a micro or small enterprise (fewer than 50 people and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of at most 10 million euro), it is exempt from the annual transparency reports of article 15 DSA and from the additional obligations for online platforms in articles 19 to 28, including the report of article 24. We offer the procedures on this page anyway, because they are right.

If our size changes, we will update this.

We keep reports and decisions for 24 months after the decision, so we can account for them. After that they are deleted. See the privacy statement.

What changed

• New: the procedures of the Digital Services Act on one page: points of contact, reporting, statement of reasons, appeals, out-of-court dispute settlement and measures against misuse.
• A statement of reasons with every decision, in the app or by e-mail.