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Article 21 Academic Advisory Board
Article 21 of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) allows national Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) to endow organisations with the task of settling content moderation disputes. The Article 21 Academic Advisory Board (‘The Board’) brings together researchers to facilitate discussions and provide practical guidance on how out-of-court dispute settlement (ODS) bodies should function. 
Our Mission
The Article 21 Academic Advisory Board discusses the most challenging issues arising in the development of out-of-court dispute settlement mechanisms under the DSA. It provides guidance to out-of-court dispute resolution bodies and regulators and informs the work of academics and civil society organisations. Exploring how to put Article 21 into practice, it aims to make an important contribution to the emerging out-of-court dispute resolution landscape and shape how out-of-court dispute settlement can improve content moderation accountability in Europe and globally.
How the Advisory Board works
The Board consists of four academics who commit to serving on the Board for a minimum of twelve months. In every meeting, a fifth seat on the Board will be filled by an academic who has particular expertise on the subject matter and contributes to the meeting as a discussant. The Board is organised and facilitated by its administration and Research Fellows. 
Aspiring and certified ODS bodies can bring the most difficult and consequential issues arising from their establishment and operations to the attention of the Board. The Advisory Board selects the most pressing issues raised to it and discusses them in bi-monthly meetings under Chatham House Rules. To inform the discussion of the Board, regulators are invited to provide their perspectives on the issues.
Following the discussion, the Advisory Board publishes “Discussion Reports.” These reports clearly outline the questions discussed, provide different options to answer them and outline their implications. 
ODS bodies that raise issues to the Board also commit to providing explanations of their current practice and plans to improve their practice to the Board. These explanations will either be treated as an internal resource for the Board or, with the agreement of the ODS bodies, be published on the Board's website after the Board has issued its report. 
For more detailed explanations and information on how to contribute to the work of the Board, see the FAQs below. 
Board Members
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João Pedro Quintais
Board Member
Profile
João Pedro Quintais is an Associate Professor, Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam. His research areas include the application of intellectual property (IP) law to new technologies, the implications of copyright law and its enforcement, the role and responsibilities of large-scale platforms in the context of illegal or harmful content moderation, as well as legal implications of generative AI. 
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Iva Nenadić
Board Member
Profile
Iva Nenadić is an Assistant Professor of media and digital policy at the University of Zagreb and a Research Fellow at the European University Institute’s Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom. She studies media pluralism in the context of content moderation policies of online platforms, and related regulatory interventions. She is a member of the Committee of Experts on the Impacts of GenAI for Freedom of Expression (MSI-AI) at the Council of Europe, and in the Management Committee of the European Digital Media Observatory.
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Giovanni De Gregorio
Board Member
Profile
Giovanni De Gregorio is the PLMJ Chair in Law and Technology at Católica Global School of Law and Católica Lisbon School of Law. His research interests include digital constitutionalism, freedom of expression, privacy and data protection law, and digital policy. Giovanni is the author of the monograph Digital Constitutionalism in Europe: Reframing Rights and Powers in the Algorithmic Society (Cambridge University Press 2022).
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Hannah Ruschmeier
Board Member
Profile
Hannah Ruschemeier is a Junior Professor of Public Law, Data Protection Law/Law of the Digital Transformation at the Faculty of Law of the Fernuniversität Hagen. Her research interests include new forms of intervention in fundamental rights, digital aspects of administrative and constitutional law, legal theoretical foundations of digitalization, data protection law, and legal aspects of privacy.
Administration
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Niklas Eder
Director
Profile
Niklas Eder is a Digital Policy Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford Law School, a Visiting Lecturer at King’s College London and a Co-Founder of User Rights. He serves as Director of the administration of the Article 21 Advisory Board.
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Nitya Kuthiala
Fellow - Communications and Outreach
Profile
Nitya Kuthiala works at the intersection of emerging technologies, AI ethics, and safety. She leads the Board's communications and outreach work streams and supports the Board's strategic development.
Discussion Reports

 

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Discussion Report No. 1: The role of statements of reasons in out-of-court dispute settlement
August 2024
In its first meeting, the Article 21 - Academic Advisory Board discussed how the quality of statements of reasons provided by platforms should impact the decisions of out-of-court dispute settlement bodies (ODS bodies). It developed a concrete solution which ODS bodies can apply to account for the importance of the reasoning given by platforms. This solution accounts for the fact that platforms require time to fully comply with the DSA and its Article 17. It also allows ODS bodies to assume a strategic role in the broader DSA landscape and to support gradual progress. The Discussion Report presents the questions the Board engaged with, outlines options considered by the Board and summarises its key considerations. These include the role of fundamental rights in dispute resolution; the standard of review of ODS bodies; strategic cooperation of ODS bodies with other important actors (e.g. fact checkers); possibilities of ODS bodies to encourage platforms to provide statements of reasons that satisfy the requirements under Art. 17 DSA; the role of reporting data and sharing insights with other actors and academia.
Jeffery Howard joined the Board as a discussant in the first board Meeting. Jeffrey is an Associate Professor of Political Philosophy and Public Policy at University College London.
News
A New Animal Joins the Circus
Article
August 2024
Niklas Eder
In the Article “A New Animal Joins the Circus: On the Nature and Value of Out-of-Court Dispute Settlement Under the DSA” published in Tech Policy Press, Niklas Eder (Director of the administration of the Article 21 - Academic Advisory Board) and Giovanni Di Gregorio (Board Member), developed a vision for the added value of out-of-court dispute settlement under the DSA and warn against pitfalls. 
Launch of the Article 21 - Academic Advisory Board
Press Release
August 2024
Administration
Berlin, 14. August 2024 – User Rights founded the Article 21 - Academic Advisory Board to connect out-of-court dispute settlement bodies with academia. The Board discusses the most difficult questions defining the emerging field of out-of-court dispute settlement for content moderation. It serves as a forum to develop well informed solutions to practical problems.
FAQs