Twitter accused of lacking countermotion procedure for its complaint handling mechanism

Twitter is under fire for not having a countermotion procedure in its complaint handling mechanism, as highlighted by a complaint from a German organization. This procedure is crucial under German laws and will soon be required under the Digital Services Act.

The German non-profit organisation HaitAid filed a complaint against Twitter to the Federal Office of Justice as the platform allegedly failed to include a countermotion procedure regarding its complaint handling mechanism. According to Germany’s Network Enforcement Act, social media platforms have an obligation to offer a complaint handling mechanism for users to flag illegal content and, furthermore, a second complaint filing mechanism—a countermotion procedure—that allows users to contradict the platforms’ handling of the initial complaint. Euractiv reported that Twitter was the only big player that has yet to include information on the implementation of a countermotion procedure. Under Article 17 of the coming Digital Services Act (DSA), platforms have the same obligation to offer an internal complaint mechanism.

Source: Euractiv