France tops the list of EU countries whose citizens “stood up to social media companies” challenging their content moderation decisions in the past year, a report has revealed.
Data published by Appeals Centre Europe, an independent organisation created to resolve disputes on social media platforms moderation policies, said it received 24,000 complaints between April 2025 and March 2026.
The largest number was received from France (4,400), followed by Belgium and Italy. This compares with 3,000 received from Spain, 1,800 from Germany, 427 from Sweden, 350 from Denmark, and 235 from Austria.
The main reasons were hate speech and hateful behaviours, account suspensions or restrictions, adult nudity and sexual activity, misinformation, and fraud and scams.
In France, Denmark and Sweden, the biggest number of complaints was related to Facebook, while in Austria, Germany and Spain more complaints were directed against Instagram.
