Appeals Centre Europe report: what it says about account bans

21 October 2026

Appeals Centre Europe, one of the certified dispute bodies under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), published its second transparency report in May 2026. It covers April 2025 to March 2026. Account suspensions became its biggest dispute type, but platforms, Meta above all, rarely sent the information needed to review them. Here is what the report says, with sources, and what it means if your account was banned.

What the report covers

Appeals Centre Europe reviews decisions by Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok and YouTube for people in the EU. Submitting a dispute is free. Its decisions are not binding, but platforms must engage in good faith. All figures below come from the Transparency Report, April 2025 to March 2026, published in May 2026.

The figures on account suspensions

• The body started accepting account suspension disputes in June 2025. The report says this "quickly became our biggest dispute type".
• By March 2026, users had sent more than 14,000 requests to review account suspensions. More than 5,000 of them fell within its scope.
• Most of those accounts had been banned under the platforms' account policies, followed by adult nudity and sexual activity, and fraud and scams.
• In 44% of all eligible disputes, people wanted their account back.
• For Facebook and Instagram, the body received more than 4,600 eligible account suspension disputes, but got the content from Meta in fewer than 100 of them.
• Across all platforms, it could review the content and decide fewer than 150 account suspension disputes. In those, it overturned the platform's decision in about a third (35%) of cases.

What a "default decision" is

When a platform does not send the content within 30 days, the body may make a default decision in the user's favour. Across all dispute types it made more than 7,000 such decisions, mainly in account suspension cases. The report calls these procedural. They do not review what you posted, and the body says it still does not get consistent data on whether platforms carry out its decisions.

The body also writes that it receives messages every week from frustrated users who feel the process has fallen short of their expectations. The Register reported the same figures on 28 May 2026.

Other figures worth knowing

• More than 24,000 disputes in total, about 12,400 within scope.
• Where it could review the content, it disagreed with the platform 59% of the time across all dispute types.
• On average, a decision took 65 days.
• Since March 2026 it also takes disputes about restricted content and accounts.

What the body does not take

The report and the Appeals Centre Europe FAQ list cases it cannot review. These include hacked accounts, impersonation, identity verification, under-age removals, child sexual abuse material, and decisions about an account's "behaviour" such as suspected fake or bot accounts, automation, coordinated networks, ban evasion or links to another suspended account. It only takes account decisions made in the last six months, and only for users based in an EU member state.

What this means if you are banned in the EU

The report does not change your rights. It shows where the system is still weak. What you can do now:

1. Use the in-app appeal first while the platform's own deadline is open. On Facebook, Meta's help pages give 180 days for a suspension.
2. Ask for a clear statement of reasons. Under DSA Article 17 the platform must give you the facts, the rule, whether automated tools were used, and how to challenge it.
3. Use the free internal complaint, open for at least six months after the decision.
4. Pick a dispute body that fits your case. Appeals Centre Europe is one option. User Rights and Platform Control also list Facebook and Instagram and take account suspensions. The dispute body finder shows which bodies list your platform.
5. Ask for your data under the GDPR. The platform must answer within one month.
6. Keep a file: screenshots, dates, every reply.

Not sure where you stand? The free ban checker shows your rights, deadlines and next step.