European Report Reveals Social Media Platforms Fail to Remove Hate Speech

Published on 28/05/2026 – 7:01 GMT+2

A comprehensive transparency report indicates that major social‑media platforms—including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube—are not consistently enforcing their own hate‑speech policies. The report, produced by Appeals Centre Europe (ACE), an independent body established under the European Union’s Digital Services Act to address user disputes, examines the year up to March 2026.

ACE received more than 24,000 disputes from individuals and organisations across the EU, equating to roughly one complaint every 22 minutes. In 70 % of the 1,400 cases where ACE reviewed platform decisions to allow content identified as hate speech, the organisation overturned the platforms’ rulings.

Disputed content ranged from racist remarks that likened Black footballers to monkeys, which remained live on Instagram following a UEFA Champions League match, to antisemitic videos posted on YouTube that were shared by prominent Polish figures and left up despite violating the platform’s hate‑speech policy.

The report also identified hateful material targeting religious minorities, Roma people, migrants, and LGBTQI + communities. Additionally, an AI‑generated video about the Russia‑Ukraine war was left online, contravening TikTok’s misinformation rules.

Performance varied across platforms: TikTok had the highest rate of overturned decisions, with 83 % of cases where hate speech remained live being reversed. Instagram followed at 74 %, Facebook at 61 %, and YouTube at 58 %.

“Our findings are beginning to reveal consistent patterns of recurrent issues in how social‑media platforms moderate content,” the report states.

European Users Push Back

The report highlights a surge in user complaints, with ACE receiving over 30,000 disputes in total. France led in the number of disputes, followed by Belgium and Italy.

Not all disputes concerned hate speech; one prominent case involved a Czech photographer whose images were mistakenly removed by Facebook under its adult‑nudity and sexual‑activity policy.

Thomas Hughes, CEO of Appeals Centre Europe, says, “Online hate and harassment have real‑world consequences for many people and communities.” He added, “In more than two‑thirds of our decisions about hate speech, we found that platforms failed to enforce their own policies and left hateful content online. This demonstrates that platforms don’t always get it right.”

Source link