A few weks ago, Vigilia submitted its first case to help a user restore a post that was wrongly removed by TikTok.

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As soon as User Rights (one of the out-of court dispute settlement body under Article 21 of the DSA) reached out to TikTok to let them know about the case we filed, the platform acknowledged its mistake and reversed its decision, putting the post back up.

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As humans, we enjoy wins. We also think this is the start of something larger:

  • Platforms keep on making wrong moderation calls, even in clear-cut cases. The need for effective user redress is evident, and Vigilia will be taking on many more such cases in the coming months.
  • It now takes a few weeks to go from "wrong platform decision" to "content restored". It's better than never (ie pre-DSA) but it is still not enough: the post in question was about current political news; restoring it weeks after the event made it lose relevance and harmed the influencer's ability to reach audiences when it mattered.
  • By taking down a political post, TikTok made an editorial decision that some content was not allowed on the platform.
  • Third-party review of moderation decision at scale is an absolute necessity. Platforms cannot be trusted to comply with their own community guidelines, or with European countries' legislation. We therefore encourage all users to go file their moderation cases in front of out-of-cur dispute settlement bodies.

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