Court: ‘X in violating of DSA by shadowbanning account of Dutch entrepreneur’
The court of Amsterdam condemns X of shadowbanning the account of a Dutch user. The social media platform is therefore in violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
By the end of 2021, the Digital Service Act or DSA was adopted in the European Union. The goal of this legislation is to better protect European consumers and internet users against large and powerful tech companies.
Danny Mekić, a Dutch entrepreneur, posted a message in X in October 2023, criticizing Europe’s plans on how to combat the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
“The chats of hundreds of millions of people will soon be scanned to detect a relatively small number of criminals,” he wrote, suggesting Brussel’s plans against child pornography are disproportionate.
Soon after his post Mekić noticed his account could no longer be found. Because X didn’t say anything about it, he contacted the social media platform for an explanation.
“I am a paying X user (my name is Danny Mekić) and today I found out, because other X users pointed out to me, that your company has placed a “search (suggestion) ban” on my account. This means that when people who do not already follow me type in my name on your platform, they cannot find me and my account. I was not notified about this by your company. Could you please help me or explain to me what to do to get this “Search (Suggestion) Ban” lifted from my account?,” he wrote in an email.
On November 13, a month after Mekić sent his email, the Dutch national got a response from X.
“With reference to your request, X has automated mechanisms to analyze posts which may be associated with Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), and subsequently may restrict those posts’ reach. This can cause individual posts associated with an account to be surfaced with temporary account-level restriction. Safeguards are in place for these automated mechanisms in an attempt to avoid situations where the author is a journalist or researcher.”
Mekić wasn’t pleased with the explanation of X and decided to go to court, arguing that the social media platform acted unlawfully by shadowbanning his account without informing him.
According to the court’s ruling, X is violating both Article 12 and Article 17 of the DSA.
Article 12 dictates that providers of intermediary services are obliged to designate a single point of contact to enable users to communicate directly and rapidly with them.
Article 17 states that providers of hosting services have to provide a clear and specific statement if they decide to impose restrictions on a user’s account.
The court orders X to provide a single point of contact to Danny Mekić within two weeks. The social media platform will be subjected to a penalty of 100 euro per day for every day that X fails to comply, with a maximum of 100,000 euro. The company also has to explain in detail why Mekić’s account was shadowbanned.
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