The Role of the DSA and the Facebook Oversight Board in the Provision of Effective Remedy on Social Media

Abstract

With the rise of social media and the rapid increase in the number of decisions made by platforms regarding user content, the creation of a safe and foreseeable online environment became the center of attention (again) in the 2020s. In order to improve user safety, on the one hand, the Facebook Oversight Board was set up in October 2020, which is designed to answer some of the most difficult questions around freedom of expression online (among other human rights), primarily in accordance with Facebook’s stated values and policies, however, international human rights standards appear more and more prominently in recent Oversight Board decisions. On the other hand, the Digital Services Act requires service providers to issue statement of reasons with most of their decisions and the provision of internal complaint handling mechanisms and out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms to review platform decisions will become a requirement. Alternative dispute resolution forums under the Digital Services Act are expected to have many characteristics in common with the Oversight Board, which can therefore be analyzed as a kind of experiment from the Act’s point of view. The experiences regarding and shortcomings of the Oversight Board so far can provide significant guidance for future reference in order to ensure that the forums will operate as efficiently as possible and therefore, ensure the fullest possible protection of users.