On 26 May, the European Commission launched a public consultation seeking input for its draft Trusted Flaggers’ guidelines under Article 22 of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The guidelines aim to provide clarity on the functioning of the trusted flagger mechanism for organisations seeking to become designated trusted flaggers and for the Digital Services Coordinators responsible for their designation and oversight.
The Centre for Democracy and Technology Europe (CDT Europe) welcomes the opportunity to respond to this public consultation and to reiterate the value of an effectively functioning trusted flagger mechanism in advancing the DSA’s enforcement. This is particularly pertinent given the challenges many existing trusted flagger organisations are facing in terms of political pressures, as well as the lack of headway made in operationalising some of the other key provisions of the DSA aimed to foster greater transparency and user control, such as the data access provisions.
In our submission, we take the opportunity to underline the importance of the trusted flagger provision and provide recommendations on where to better clarify the safeguards in place to protect awarded entities and prevent weaponisation of this provision. Our recommendations are articulated in four key points: (1) protection against government and law enforcement overreach; (2) clarification in cases of investigations and revocation status; (3) need to ensure a uniform application of the Trusted Flaggers mechanism across EU Member States; and (4) need for increased political and financial support to the Trusted Flaggers ecosystem.
Read the full submission here.