Trusted flaggers

The Digital Services Coordinator will award the status of Trusted Flagger upon application, in accordance with a procedure, to any entity that fulfils all of the following conditions:

• has particular expertise and competence for the purposes of detecting, identifying and notifying illegal content;
• is independent from any provider of online platforms;
• carries out its activities for the purposes of submitting notices diligently, accurately and objectively.

Decision no. 336/2024 on the procedure for granting the status of trust flagger entered into force on the date of publication in the Romanian Official Journal no. 662, on 11 July 2024.

According to the ANCOM Decision, entities wishing to become trusted flaggers can fill in a standard form (Application for granting trusted flaggers status) which they will submit together with all the documents and evidence of the fact that they meet the required conditions. The standard form provides for various items of information such as: form of organisation, name, identification data, field of competence, language(s) in which they have competences, human and technical resources, method and sources of funding, organisational structure and decision-making process, detailed description of how the activity is carried out and self-declarations regarding the fulfilment of the eligibility conditions and the veracity of the information contained in the application or in the attached documents.

Having analysed the submitted documentation, ANCOM will communicate to the applicant the decision on granting this status.

Examples of entities that can apply for the trusted flagger status

• NGOs, such as: consumer protection organisations, child protection organisations, human rights organisations, environmental organisations, animal rights organisations;
• members of well-known fact-checking networks, such as the International FactChecking Network (IFCN);
• public entities such as online content reporting units of national law enforcement authorities or the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol);
• private or public-private bodies, e.g. organisations that are part of the INHOPE network of hotlines for reporting child sexual abuse material and organisations that are committed to reporting illegal racist and xenophobic speech online;
• networks or alliances of entities at national or European level.

Types of illegal content that can be identified by trusted flaggers

Illegal content means any information that breaches one of the laws in force in Romania or another EU member state.

The types of illegal content that can be detected, identified and notified by trusted flaggers in various areas of competence fall under categories such as:

• Data protection and privacy violations;
• Illegal speech;
• Infringement of intellectual property and other commercial rights;
• Acting in respect of personal information or images, without consent;
• Online bullying or harassment;
• Pornography or sexual content;
• Actions concerning minors;
• Actions concerning animals;
• Illegal and/or unsafe products etc.