The morning read on Europe's digital policy Monday 5 October 2026
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How to appeal an Instagram, Facebook or TikTok ban in the EU (DSA)

If Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or another large platform suspends your account and you live in the EU, the Digital Services Act (DSA) gives you a set escalation path: a free internal appeal to the platform, then a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body such as Appeals Centre Europe, a complaint to your national regulator, and the courts. As of October 2026, Appeals Centre Europe reviews account suspensions on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest and Google Maps at no cost to users located in the EU and aged 16 or over, as long as the platform's decision is less than six months old.

These rights come from Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, mainly Articles 17, 20, 21 and 53. Micro and small platforms are exempt from the appeal duties, but every online platform on the DSA list of very large online platforms must comply.

The four routes at a glance

  1. Internal complaint (Article 20): free, open for at least six months after you are told about the decision.
  2. Out-of-court dispute settlement (Article 21): a certified independent body reviews the case; free or a nominal fee; not binding.
  3. Complaint to a Digital Services Coordinator (Article 53): for breaches of the DSA itself.
  4. Court action: available at any stage.

Step 1: Read the statement of reasons

Under Article 17, a service that suspends or terminates your account must send you a statement of reasons, at the latest when the restriction takes effect, provided it has your electronic contact details. The statement has to say what was restricted and for how long, which facts the platform relied on, whether automated tools were involved, the legal or terms-of-service ground, and which redress options you have.

Screenshot the notice and note the date, your username or profile URL and any reference number; later steps ask for them.

Step 2: File the platform's internal appeal

Article 20 requires online platforms to run an internal complaint-handling system that works electronically and costs nothing. It must cover account suspensions and terminations, content removals and restrictions, and limits on monetisation. You must be able to complain for at least six months from the day you were informed of the decision.

Complaints must be handled in a timely, diligent and non-arbitrary way, with qualified staff involved rather than automation alone. If the decision was wrong, the platform must reverse it without undue delay. Either way it must send a reasoned decision and tell you that out-of-court dispute settlement is available. The DSA sets no fixed number of days for the reply.

Keep the appeal factual: identify the account, name the rule the platform cited and explain briefly why you did not break it.

Step 3: Take the dispute to a certified body

Article 21 lets you choose any out-of-court dispute settlement (ODS) body certified for your type of dispute, including when the internal complaint did not resolve the matter. You and the platform must both engage with the body in good faith. A platform may refuse to take part if a dispute about the same information on the same grounds has already been resolved.

The body must decide within 90 calendar days of receiving the complaint, or up to 180 days for highly complex disputes, and cannot impose a binding settlement. If it rules for you, the platform pays the body's fees and reimburses your reasonable expenses; if it rules for the platform, you pay none of the platform's costs unless you acted manifestly in bad faith. For users the procedure must be free or carry only a nominal fee.

Appeals Centre Europe: who can use it

Appeals Centre Europe (ACE) is a Dublin-based body certified by Ireland's regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, in September 2024. As of October 2026 it covers Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Pinterest and Google Maps, including decisions to suspend or disable accounts and to remove Facebook Pages and Groups or YouTube channels. Its rules of procedure say:

  • you are located in an EU member state and are 16 or older;
  • the platform made its decision within the last six months;
  • you can communicate in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish or Dutch;
  • you are not required to appeal to the platform first, though ACE encourages it.

ACE does not charge users. Under its rules, any future user fee would be €5, apply only to those aged 18 or over and be refunded if ACE overturns the platform. The rules also say ACE does not arrange reimbursement of any other costs you incur, such as legal fees.

What ACE will not review

According to its website, these account cases fall outside its scope:

  • account behaviour decisions, such as fake accounts, bots, coordinated networks or ban evasion;
  • hacked accounts, impersonation, and accounts suspended for links to other suspended accounts;
  • copyright and other intellectual property removals;
  • underage accounts, identity verification and child sexual abuse material cases;
  • spam decisions based on technical or automated signals, such as mass reposting of the same content.

ACE also judges decisions only against the platform's own rules, not national law.

What to prepare

You file through an account on the ACE website. The form asks for an email address, the platform's reference number or, failing that, your username and the relevant URL, answers to set questions and a statement of up to 3,500 characters. You also tick a box confirming that the information is accurate and that you have not taken the same dispute to another certified body or a court.

Timing and possible outcomes

ACE aims to decide within 90 calendar days and can extend complex cases to 180. Its transparency report for April 2025 to March 2026 puts the average at 65 days. Once a case is found eligible, ACE asks the platform for the content behind the decision. If nothing arrives within 30 days, it may issue a default (procedural) decision in the user's favour, which means it could not assess whether the platform was right.

Every outcome is a recommendation. The platform must engage in good faith and, under Article 24, report the share of ODS decisions it implements, but it is not obliged to restore your account.

Other certified bodies

The European Commission keeps the official list of certified ODS bodies; its 11 September 2026 update names 11. Two German bodies are relevant to account bans:

  • User Rights covers Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X, YouTube and Snapchat. Its FAQ lists account suspension as reviewable, says it charges individuals nothing and accepts cases up to 12 months after the platform's notification.
  • Platform Control handles terms-of-service disputes and illegal-content disputes under German law on services including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit and Pinterest, in German and English, and says reviews are free for users.

For a ban on X or LinkedIn, which ACE does not cover, User Rights is one option. The other listed bodies specialise by language, country or content type, so check scope, fees and deadlines on each body's site.

What the data says about account-ban disputes

ACE's May 2026 report says account suspensions became its largest dispute type after it began accepting them in June 2025. By March 2026 it had received more than 14,000 suspension requests, of which more than 5,000 were in scope. Platforms supplied the relevant content in fewer than 150 of those cases; where ACE could review it, it overturned the platform in about 35% of them.

Across all dispute types, ACE made over 10,200 decisions in the 12 months to March 2026; about 72% were default rulings for the user because the platform had not sent the content, and ACE says this happened in the vast majority of suspension cases. Meta sent content in fewer than 100 of more than 4,600 eligible Facebook and Instagram suspension disputes. ACE also says it does not receive consistent data on whether platforms implement its decisions, so a decision in your favour does not guarantee reinstatement.

Step 4: Complain to your Digital Services Coordinator

Article 53 lets you complain about a platform that breaches the DSA to the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) of the member state where you are located or established. The DSC can pass it to the coordinator of the country where the platform is established, often Ireland for the largest platforms; the European Commission also supervises very large platforms. The Commission publishes the list of national coordinators, and our Digital Markets section follows enforcement against big platforms.

This route covers procedural failures, such as no statement of reasons or no working appeal channel. It will not get your case re-decided: Ireland's regulator says it is not a content moderator.

Step 5: Go to court

Article 21 says you can start court proceedings at any stage, even while an ODS case is open, although ACE asks you to confirm when you file that the dispute is not already before a court. Cost, timing and the competent court depend on national law, so consider advice from a lawyer or consumer organisation, especially if the account earns you income.

Checklist before you start

  • Save the statement of reasons, dates and reference numbers.
  • Check the exclusions: hacked, impersonation, fake-account and copyright cases need other routes.
  • Send each dispute to one body: a platform can refuse a dispute already resolved on the same grounds, and ACE requires you to confirm the case is not with another body.

More on EU platform rules is in our Policy section.

Frequently asked questions

Is Appeals Centre Europe free?

Yes. As of October 2026 ACE charges users nothing; platforms pay its fees. Its rules allow a possible future €5 fee for adults, refundable if the platform's decision is overturned.

Can I appeal an Instagram ban in the EU after six months?

Not at ACE, which only accepts decisions made in the last six months. User Rights says it accepts cases up to 12 months after the platform's notification, and court action may still be possible under national law.

Is the Appeals Centre's decision binding on Meta or TikTok?

No. Under Article 21 of the DSA, certified bodies cannot impose a binding settlement, but platforms must engage in good faith and report how often they implement ODS decisions.

Do I have to appeal to the platform before going to an out-of-court body?

ACE does not require it but encourages it. An internal appeal also gets you the platform's reasoned decision, which helps when writing your dispute statement.

Can I use these routes for a TikTok ban?

Yes. TikTok must offer the free internal appeal under Article 20, and both ACE and User Rights accept TikTok account suspension disputes, subject to their eligibility rules.