Misinformation on Social Media – Know Your Rights

What Is Misinformation? Definition and Key Distinctions

Misinformation refers to false or inaccurate information that is shared, regardless of intent. Disinformation is a subset: false information spread deliberately to deceive. Platforms address these separately. Coordinated inauthentic behaviour is an account integrity matter, enforced against the accounts and networks involved rather than the individual post. False content is dealt with under misinformation policies, which mostly do not remove it. Outside defined categories such as elections, health and crises, the usual response is a label or reduced distribution rather than a takedown.

In practice, misinformation enforcement creates significant collateral damage. Satire that exaggerates or inverts facts is misread as sincere false claims. Reporting on a disputed scientific study is removed because the study's conclusions conflict with guidance that was later revised. A political commentator's opinion piece is labelled as misinformation because a fact-checker disagreed with its framing. In each case, the platform's policy was applied to content it was not designed to cover.

Misinformation Policies on Social Media Platforms

All platforms covered by User Rights are subject to the DSA, which requires them to give reasons for moderation decisions and to cooperate with certified dispute settlement bodies. Each platform maintains its own misinformation policy, covering health, election integrity, manipulated media and other categories.

Meta: Instagram and Facebook

Meta's Misinformation policy requires content to be removed by the platform in three cases: if it contains physical harm or violence, harmful health misinformation, voter or census interference. In case of manipulated media, the content is required to be labelled. In Europe, Meta partners with independent fact-checkers to assess content; posts rated as false may be labelled or demoted, rather than removed. If your post is still online but suddenly reaches almost nobody, that is a moderation decision, and you can challenge it.

TikTok

TikTok's Community Guidelines on Misinformation prohibit false or misleading content that causes significant harm to individuals or society, regardless of intent. This includes health and medical misinformation, fabricated statements attributed to real people, and content that undermines electoral processes. TikTok assesses content containing unverified information on crises and major civic events with independent fact-checkers. TikTok additionally maintains separate policies on Civic and Election Integrity and on Edited Media and AI-Generated Content, which are both in User Rights' scope of review. Most moderation decisions taken under this guideline are not a takedown, content can be given a warning label or be made ineligible for the For You Feed, causing the video to stay on your profile, but not reaching your audience anymore.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn's Professional Community Policies prohibit sharing content that contains false or misleading information, content that interferes with an election or civic process, and claims that directly contradict guidance from leading health authorities, such as the WHO. LinkedIn differentiates the enforcement of this policy based on whether the content is likely to cause harm or simply substantially misleading but not likely to cause harm. If your post is still visible to your connections but reaching nobody else, it is a reviewable moderation measure. Fake credentials and impersonation fall under LinkedIn's separate authenticity rules.

Pinterest

Pinterest's Community Guidelines cover content that is false or misleading covering health misinformation, conspiracy theories, civic misinformation, and climate misinformation. Pinterest may remove or limit the distribution of false or misleading content that may harm the public's well-being, safety or trust, including manipulated images and audio, factual material stripped of its original context or date, disinformation campaigns, and conspiracy theories about climate change or elections. Because Pinterest is a visual platform, legitimate educational content can be taken out of context easily, leading legitimate content to be reviewed. If your Pin stays on your board, but vanishes from the search, this is a reviewable moderation decision.

YouTube

YouTube's misinformation policies only prohibit three categories of content: suppression of census participation, technically manipulated or doctored content misleading users, and misattributed content falsely presenting old footage as current. Each of the last two additionally requires a serious risk of egregious harm, so content that is simply false does not breach this policy. The policy makes an exception if content that would otherwise violate the policy includes additional context in the video, audio, title, or description. Enforcement is graduated: a first violation usually produces a warning, and three strikes within 90 days can terminate a channel. The policies also apply to external links, including URLs spoken aloud in a video.

X

X has no general misinformation policy. The relevant rule sits in its Authenticity policy, which prohibits sharing synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media likely to cause widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety or cause serious harm. False claims that are not media-based fall outside it. Impersonation and misleading identities are covered separately in the same policy.

Enforcement is usually a label rather than a removal: X applies a "manipulated media" label to posts identified as deceptively altered, and reserves removal for content likely to threaten physical safety or cause serious harm. Where X cannot reliably determine whether the content is misleading, it states that it may take no action at all.

Snapchat

Snapchat operates two layers. The community guidelines on False or Deceptive Information prohibit false information that causes harm or is malicious, citing denial of tragic events, unsubstantiated medical claims, undermining civic processes and content manipulated through generative AI or deceptive editing. The Content Guidelines for Recommendation Eligibility apply a stricter standard to anything seeking distribution beyond your friends or subscribers, denying amplification to false or misleading content even where there is no obvious risk to society. Where Snapchat cannot verify a political claim, the content may stay visible to friends but loses recommendation eligibility. Non-verification produces a reach restriction by default. If your Snap stayed visible to friends but went no further, that is a moderation decision and it is reviewable.

What Can You Do if You Are Affected?

There are two situations in which User Rights can help: your content was wrongly removed, labelled or restricted as misinformation, or you reported demonstrably false content and the platform did not act consistently with its own policy.

An important clarification: User Rights does not assess whether content is factually true or false. Our review focuses on whether the platform applied its own misinformation policy correctly and consistently. or example, whether it treated your content as misinformation when its own policy clearly exempts satire, opinion or contested scientific debate. In misinformation cases, User Rights first reviews the platform's process rather than the facts themselves: whether it used a fact-checking procedure meeting recognised standards such as those of the EFCSN or IFCN, and whether it gave a clear statement of reasons identifying what it relied on. Where that process falls short, we assess the content against the policy only where doing so requires no independent verification of the truth, for example where the policy names prohibited categories, refers to external authorities, or where recognised fact-checkers have already assessed the claim.

Scenario A: Your content was removed, labelled or restricted as misinformation

1. Check the stated reason: Under Art. 17 DSA platforms must give a specific reason for every moderation action. Identify exactly which misinformation category was cited – health, election integrity, manipulated media, etc. – and assess whether your content actually falls within that category under the platform's own definitions.
2. Identify the applicable exception: Most platform misinformation policies explicitly exempt satire, opinion, news reporting and content that presents disputed claims as disputed. If your content qualifies under one of these exemptions, document why.
3. Appeal internally: Use the platform's appeal mechanism and provide context: the source of the information you shared, whether your content was clearly labelled as satire or opinion, or why the claim you made is scientifically contested rather than demonstrably false. Please always provide evidence of your internal complaint case when you submit a case with User Rights. Please note: You do not have to wait for a response by the platform after seven days from the date of your internal complaint.
4. Submit to User Rights: If the internal appeal was unsuccessful or unanswered after seven days, submit your case. User Rights will assess whether the platform's decision was consistent with its own policies.

Scenario B: You reported misinformation and the platform did not act

1. Document the content: Screenshot the post with the profile name, URL and date. Note specifically which provision of the platform's misinformation policy you believe is violated and why the claim is demonstrably false rather than merely disputed or unpopular.
2. Report to the platform: Use the in-built reporting function. Select the most specific misinformation category available.
3. Appeal if dismissed: If the platform dismisses your report, appeal via the help centre or dismissal notification and keep a record of the response. Please note: You do not have to wait for a response to file a case with User Rights, it is sufficient that a reasonable waiting period of seven days expired. Please always provide evidence of your internal complaint case when you submit a case with User Rights.
4. Submit to User Rights: If the platform's inaction was inconsistent with its own misinformation policy, submit a complaint. Where you reported the content under one of the platform's policies, we review whether the decision was consistent with any policies of the platform within the scope of User Rights.

Note: User Rights does not review Direct Messages, moderation actions that were taken more than twelve months ago, or moderation based solely on inauthentic behaviour (e.g. bot accounts or fake engagement). A full overview of what falls within scope is available on the scope of review page.

Was your Content wrongly removed or labelled as Misinformation – or did a Platform ignore false Content you reported?