At Vivastreet.ie, our top priority is to provide a safe and trusted platform for our community. We do this by having robust moderation systems and controls in place, and through our work with charity partners and law enforcement.
This transparency report is published pursuant to Articles 15, 24, and 42 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act - DSA). The report contains information for a reporting period from 1 Jan 2023 to 31 Dec 2023, and outlines the content moderation activities, user reporting and complaints procedures, and engagement with law enforcement agencies in the EU member states.
For any questions or comments on this report, please contact [email protected]
As part of our commitment to the safety of our users we have invested significant time and resources into our content moderation processes and systems.
We set out clear policies for what is and what is not acceptable on our platforms in the Ts&Cs and operate a multi-stage risk assessment process prior to publication of all adverts on our platform whereby they are automatically screened for any content that violates these Guidelines. In addition, we maintain a list of prohibited terms and wider risk factors pertaining to potential harm and criminality - all adverts are reviewed for these prohibited terms and risk factors, with a view to identifying and reviewing potentially harmful content.
Our moderation and risk assessment processes are constantly updated and refined, based on our own experiences and through our work with specialist charities and law enforcement, to ensure that we are able to identify and remove as much potentially problematic content as possible, prior to publication.
In 2023, we rejected 417,811 adverts posted in Vivastreet's EU markets.
We encourage users to report any issues or concerns directly to Vivastreet by using the “Report this ad” feature found on each advert on the platform. Our dedicated moderation teams manually review all content that is brought to our attention by users through this process. Any advert that does not meet our Terms and Conditions is removed and blocked from returning to the site.
Trusted flaggers (as designated by the Digital Services Coordinator of the Member State in which the applicant is established) can file a notice within that notice mechanism in line with Article 22 DSA. Currently the Digital Services Coordinators have not designated such trusted flaggers, and therefore no notices have been submitted through this process during the reporting period.
In 2023, Vivastreet’s EU markets received 12,401 reports direct from site visitors via this flagging feature.
We view cooperation with law enforcement as essential to tackling any form of criminality on our site. As part of this, we operate a police request service, allowing government agencies to contact us quickly to request information for criminal purposes related to applicable laws in the EU and its member states. Where requested, we provide information in an evidential format to support officers in the course of their investigations.
We constantly evaluate our policies, and where we are asked to do so by the law enforcement authorities, we take steps to block users identified as high risk.
For the year of 2023, Vivastreet's EU markets received 14 requests from law enforcement authorities.