European Commission Publishes Interactive Summary of Platform Content Moderation Data

The European Commission has published an interactive dashboard that summarizes data on content moderation decisions from multiple online platform providers. Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), online platform providers must submit explanations of their content moderation decisions to the DSA Transparency Database. These explanations (referred to as “statements of reasons”) must include the category of violation, what action was taken, whether the content was detected using automation, and whether the decision was made using automation, among other pieces of information.

The dashboard contains multiple charts, including some breaking down timeline of reports, what categories of violation are most frequently reported, most common types of action taken, and percentage of overall violation types, both overall and by individual platform. Nearly 3.5 billion statements of reason were incorporated into the dashboard (over 2.8 billion were solely from Google Shopping).

EPIC has consistently pushed for increased transparency into company and government practices, particularly regarding personal data processing. EPIC has submitted comments to multiple federal agencies recommending better transparency practices as well as letters to the Biden administration and Attorney General Garland on the same.