Report to us
If you would like to contact Coimisiún na Meán about an issue you encountered on a platform online, you can email [email protected] or call the Contact Centre on +353 1 9637755 (Monday-Friday 8am-6pm).
You may be asked the following questions so we can fully understand how we can help.
In what country are you based?
Under the Digital Services Act, you make your complaint with the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) of the country where you are based. Coimisiún na Meán is the DSC for Ireland. If you are based outside of Ireland, we will direct you to your own DSC.
What’s the platform you are reporting?
This question is to make sure the platform you are reporting is a platform that we regulate. For any complaint under the Digital Services Act, for example, we need to make sure the platform is established in Ireland. If you are based in Ireland but the platform in question isn’t, e.g. Snapchat, we will transmit the complaint to the DSC in the Netherlands. Snapchat is not established in Ireland, it is headquartered in the Netherlands, so that Digital Services Coordinator must deal with the complaint. Complaints made under the Online Safety Code are different and are not subject to the ‘establishment’ test – they relate to specific video-sharing platforms.
What is your issue with the service/platform and have you reported this issue to the platform already?
This allows us to understand what your problem is and what steps you’ve taken already. It is helpful for us to have a copy of the communication you may have already sent the platform. This information allows us to assess if an online service has failed to comply with its obligations under the Online Safety Framework. If you are submitting a complaint to us, please submit all details of your communication with the platform, including your initial report and appeal/complaint.
Depending on your issue, we may pass a complaint to another body. These bodies are:
- The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (if the complaint relates to online trading)
- The European Commission (if the complaint relates to Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) or Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs))
We will notify you when it has passed the complaint to another body.
Do you have evidence or screenshots of the issue you faced online?
We understand you may not have evidence after you’ve made your report, however, any proof (e.g. emails, screenshots, etc.) you might have will help us better understand the issue you’re facing. Sometimes a user might want to report illegal content, but they haven’t used the correct reporting form provided by the platform. If we have the full picture and it is clear that the platform hasn’t fulfilled its duties under the Online Safety Framework, we may categorise this query as an ‘official Digital Services Act complaint’ too.
Is the issue you’re concerned about something that you can report to us?
While we don’t expect the public to know each article of the various laws under the Online Safety Framework (DSA/OSC/TCOR), it is important for us to establish if whatever you’re concerned about is something we have the remit to consider. To understand your rights online and what our Online Safety Framework encompasses, have a look at our legislation explained page.
Each query and contact we receive at our Contact Centre is important, and is categorised and logged. While not every contact may result in an official complaint, as it may not be within our remit to act, we try to signpost and help the user to additional resources which may be able to help resolve their query
To contact our Contact Centre, email [email protected] or call us on +353 1 9637755 (Monday-Friday 8am-6pm).