DSA: Federal Network Agency appoints first "Trusted Flagger"

As the German supervisory authority for the European Union's Digital Service Act (DSA), the Federal Network Agency has awarded an organization the status of "Trusted Flagger" for the first time. This special status stipulates, among other things, that reports from these organizations must be processed particularly quickly by platform operators such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or X.

Trusted whistleblower

The body now appointed as a trusted whistleblower is the "REspect!" reporting office of the Foundation for the Promotion of Youth in Baden-Württemberg. It receives reports from users via a – – reporting form with screenshots, which can be used anonymously if desired, then checks them and forwards the results to platform operators. In the event of criminal relevance, the authors are also reported. The focus of the "REspect!" reporting office is on hate and hate speech. Since 2017, it claims to have filed over 20,000 reports and received more than 70,000 tips.

According to the Federal Network Agency, the organization, which is now classified as a trusted flagger, is also the first applicant after the Digital Services Act (DDG) came into force, which transposed the supplementary German regulations to the EU's Digital Services Act into law at the beginning of May.

(mki)