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.
Such disagreements with the platforms included racist comments comparing Black footballers to monkeys, which ACE said were left up on Instagram after a UEFA Champions League match.
In another instance, antisemitic videos posted on YouTube were shared by prominent figures in Poland and left up despite violating the platform’s hate speech policy, ACE said.
Other forms of hate speech were reported in cases against religious minorities, Roma people, migrants, and LGBTQI+ communities. ACE also reported an AI-generated video about the Russia-Ukraine war, which was left up despite breaking TikTok’s rules on misinformation.
The report found TikTok fared worst among the platforms assessed, with ACE overturning its decisions to leave up potential hate speech 83% of the time. Instagram followed at 74%, with Facebook at 61% and YouTube at 58%.
"Our decisions are starting to reveal patterns of prominent and recurring issues with how social media platforms moderate content," the report stated.
Europeans push back
The report also shows a surge in Europeans pushing back against platform decisions. ACE said it has received more than 30,000 disputes in total. France generated the highest number of eligible disputes, followed by Belgium and Italy.
But not all disputes concerned hate speech. One notable case involved a Czech photographer whose images were wrongly removed by Facebook under its rules on adult nudity and sexual activity.
“Online hate and harassment have real-world consequences for many people and communities,” said Thomas Hughes, CEO of Appeals Centre Europe.
“In more than two-thirds of our decisions about hate speech, we found that platforms failed to enforce their own policies and left up hateful content.
“This goes to show that platforms don’t always get it right.”
