We review your case or complaint.
User Rights is Germany's first certified dispute settlement body for social media content. We assess whether actions taken by social media platforms, such as removing posts or refraining from action following a report, were justified. Whether it is hate speech and incitement, insults, false allegations or violations of fundamental rights - individuals and organisations affected by actions taken by social media platforms can submit a complaint to us, which we will investigate and decide.
We are currently accepting complaints about Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn in German and English. We plan to expand our work and accept complaints about further social media platforms in the coming months.
Why our decisions matter.
We offer effective procedures for resolving disputes with social media platforms. We provide an independent and thorough review of decisions made by platforms on whether content should be removed or otherwise sanctioned. Our review allows users and organisations, including civil society, who report content to receive fair and understandable decisions about the moderation of content on social media platforms. Our decisions help to protect the legal order, democratic values and fundamental rights online.
Our Principles:
Free of charge
The Digital Services Act states that people and organisations, including civil society, filing complaints to out-of-court dispute settlement bodies do not have to bear the costs. The fees are paid by the providers of the online platforms.
Independent
We are financially and legally independent. The independence of our reviewers is tested and recognised by the relevant authority.
Impartial
Our reviewers are trained lawyers who are free and independent in their decisions. They have no affiliation with the online platforms or with the complainant, and have extensive expertise.
Thorough & Secure
We review cases thoroughly and with due regard to fundamental rights. We provide detailed reasoning for our decisions. We also comply with all necessary privacy regulations and data protection laws.
Simple
We offer a digital and free process that is easily accessible and gives you a comprehensive understanding of your legal situation. You only have to submit your dispute. We do the rest.
"We are strengthening the democratic rights of users and organisations, including civil society, on social media. The Digital Services Act aims to create a digital space where rights are protected, and we want to make a significant contribution with our decisions".
Raphael Kneer
Co-Founder of User Rights
Frequently Asked Questions:
User Rights is Germany's first certified dispute settlement body for social media content. We have been certified by the Digital Services Coordinator at the Federal Network Agency in Germany in accordance with Art. 21 para. 3 of the Digital Services Act (DSA). We review complaints from users and organisations, including civil society, whose social media posts have been deleted or moderated. We also review complaints from individuals or organisations who have reported content that has not been removed by a platform. Our content moderation assessment covers suspected or alleged violations of the respective social media platform’s terms and conditions as well as violations of German law. Violations of the terms and conditions are decided within a European legal framework, which means that our certification is valid throughout Europe. We are also certified in many areas of German criminal law and handle, among other things, insults and harassment, crimes against the public order, and a wide range of misdemeanours.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a European regulation that aims to create a safe and transparent digital space on the internet. The DSA obliges online platforms to cooperate with independent dispute resolution bodies such as User Rights.
The regulation sets out rules and responsibilities for online platforms in order to ensure the protection of fundamental rights and effectively combat illegal and harmful content.
We distinguish between two types of complaints: If you yourself are affected by the decision of the online platform, e.g. because your post has been deleted, you can request a review of this action. The other appeal concerns a platform's omission to act following a report. For example, if you have reported a post belonging to a third party because it is allegedly illegal or violates the terms of use, we will check whether the platform should have acted.
We are currently accepting complaints about Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn in German and English. We plan to expand our work in the coming months and enable complaints to other providers.
In short, you file a complaint and we do the rest. You will receive a reasoned decision at the end of the procedure. As a dispute settlement body, our detailed rules of procedures allow us to engage with both parties and proceed in a fair, efficient, and expeditious manner. A fully qualified lawyer prepares and reviews the case, after which it is assigned to one of our independent reviewers. Our reviewers always have a law degree and most are fully qualified lawyers with many years of legal experience and expertise covering a wide range of legal areas.
We examine your rights in both a national and European context. Our decisions are not directly binding. However, online platforms are obliged to cooperate with us and to check whether there is any reason why our decision should not be implemented. Our decision will also allow you to assess your options for further action in case it is not implemented. Is it worth going to court? Or would a complaint to the relevant authority be a better option? In addition, our decisions are anonymised and statistically evaluated with the aim of enabling a comparable analysis of the content moderation practices of online platforms.
We are independent and are financed by fees incurred as part of reviewing cases, paid by the online platforms.We are allowed to charge the online platforms reasonable fees for the proceedings. These fees are limited in amount and are regularly reviewed by the competent authority.