The European Commission has opened a consultation on draft guidelines for “trusted flaggers” — organisations that help identify illegal online content — under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
Trusted flaggers are organisations with specialist expertise that can submit notices to online platforms about potentially illegal material, such as child sexual abuse content, intellectual property rights violations and online fraud, the Commission explained in a release on Friday.
Platforms must treat these notices as a priority, while still checking for themselves whether the content is illegal, it added.
More than 70 trusted flaggers have already been designated across the EU, including the Bank of Ireland for financial scams, Someturva for online harassment such as the non-consensual sharing of intimate materials, and Child Focus for child abuse material.
The draft guidelines set out criteria and steps for awarding trusted flagger status, which is granted by national Digital Services Coordinators — the bodies overseeing the DSA in each member state.
The proposed guidance also covers technical requirements for how trusted flaggers and platforms should handle notices of illegal content.
How trusted flagger status could be monitored
The draft includes measures intended to prevent misuse of the system, including annual public transparency reports by trusted flaggers and procedures to suspend or revoke trusted flagger status, the Commission said.
It also says trusted flaggers should remain independent, objective and accountable, and operate with freedom of expression in mind.
A study on how the mechanism is being implemented has also been published as part of the preparation work.
Stakeholders including online platforms, trusted flaggers, applicants, researchers and civil society organisations have been invited to submit feedback by 26 June 2026, with the Commission planning to adopt the guidelines in the second half of 2026.
