When harmful or suspicious material appears online, platforms receive millions of reports from users. Some reports, however, come from specially accredited organisations whose alerts must be treated as a priority. The European Commission is now seeking feedback on how these organisations—known as ‘trusted flaggers’—should be selected.
Trusted flaggers are organisations that identify and report illegal content in areas such as child sexual abuse material, online scams or terrorism. Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the status of ‘trusted flagger’ is awarded by national Digital Services Coordinators. So far 70 organisations have been designated.
The Commission has published draft guidelines on the approval and operation of such entities. It now invites stakeholders, including online platforms, trusted flaggers, researchers and civil society organisations, to share their views, experience and recommendations as part of a targeted consultation.
Objective and independent
The DSA requires online platforms to prioritise notices of illegal content from trusted flaggers over everyday users. The idea is that they are more capable and specialised in identifying illegal content in their particular area of expertise. Current trusted flaggers include the Bank of Ireland, specialised in financial scams, Someturva, focusing on online harassment and Child focus, tackling online of child abuse material.
The draft guidelines set out the criteria Digital Services Coordinators must follow in awarding the trusted flagger status, as well as giving guidance on the technical requirements. Trusted flaggers and platforms should follow these requirements when processing notices of illegal content.
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One of the key criteria is that trusted flaggers are “independent from any provider of online platforms”. They must have demonstrable expertise and competence, and remain objective and accountable. In order to ensure that the authority of trusted flaggers is not abused, other measures include public annual transparency reports and procedures to suspend or revoke the status of trusted flaggers.
A help, not a hindrance
According to the Commission, platforms should be able to process truster flaggers’ reports faster and with less effort than the ordinary notices. This is based on the assumption that these organisations have deeper expertise and contextual knowledge—such as language or local insight—that helps identify problematic content more effectively. They can also expose potential gaps in how the providers moderate content in a way that regular users couldn’t.
The Commission is seeking feedback on the draft guidelines by 26 June 2026. Among the questions respondents are asked is “What challenges do you foresee in the implementation of the proposed guidelines?” and “Are there any important aspects that are missing from the draft guidelines?”
The DSA does not provide a definition of illegal content: this is defined by the relevant national and EU laws. Platforms such as Facebook, Tiktok and YouTube have the sole responsibility to decide upon notices and, where justified, remove content.
A drop in the ocean
In the second half of 2025, trusted flaggers submitted an average of 800 notices per month. That accounts for only about 0.1 per cent of the total number of notices received by providers of very large online platforms (VLOPs).
Nonetheless, the Commission says these trusted flagger notices play a particularly important role in tackling the dissemination of illegal content through online platforms. “This is due to their quality and reliability of the notices submitted by trusted flaggers, and the way in which they complement online platforms’ own content moderation processes,” it added.
The Commission plans to officially adopt the guidelines in the second half of this year.
