Social media giants fail to remove hate speech in EU, report finds

Published on

28/05/2026 - 7:01 GMT+2

Social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are systematically failing to enforce their own hate speech policies, according to a major transparency report.

Appeals Centre Europe (ACE), an independent body set up under the European Union's Digital Services Act to handle user disputes, said in the year to March 2026, it received more than 24,000 disputes from people and organisations across the EU, which marks roughly one complaint every 22 minutes.

In 70% of the 1,400 cases where the organisation reviewed platforms’ decisions to leave up content reported as hate speech, ACE overturned the platform it said.