The European Commission recently consulted stakeholders on draft Guidelines for Trusted Flaggers under Article 22 of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Trusted flaggers are organisations designated by national authorities whose reports of allegedly illegal online content receive priority treatment by online platforms. While they do not determine whether content is illegal, their privileged status gives them considerable influence over moderation decisions and, ultimately, over what remains visible in the digital public square.
For this reason, the safeguards governing their designation and operation matter greatly.
We have submitted a detailed response to the consultation, focusing on an issue that has received too little attention: the implications of trusted flagger systems for sex-based rights, freedom of expression and democratic debate.
Across Europe, those defending women’s sex-based rights, single-sex spaces and services, the safeguarding of children, and the rights of lesbians and gay men have found their speech characterised as “hateful”, “extremist” or “transphobic”. At the same time, organisations advocating gender-identity policies are involved in reporting, monitoring and responding to online speech. This raises questions about independence, objectivity and the distinction between illegal content and lawful political expression.
Our submission argues that the Guidelines should provide stronger safeguards against advocacy capture, require greater scrutiny of trusted flagger applicants and their track records, reinforce the obligation of platforms to make an independent assessment of legality, and ensure that contested political concepts are not transformed into de facto legal standards through content moderation practices. We also argue that implementation of the Guidelines should remain firmly grounded in existing EU law, including the Union’s Treaty obligations to promote equality between women and men and the EU equality framework recognising lawful sex-based distinctions, including in the provision of single-sex spaces and services.
The consultation is an important opportunity to help shape how the DSA will be implemented in practice. Although Article 22 concerns procedural rules, its application will have significant implications for sex-based rights, freedom of expression and democratic debate, including the ability of citizens to advocate lawfully online for women’s rights, the safeguarding of children, and the rights of lesbians and gay men.
Read and share our submission to the European Commission’s consultation on the draft DSA Trusted Flagger Guidelines.