X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok require that users identify themselves before being allowed to submit a notice of illegal content, even in cases when doing so has no material impact on the decision of whether the content is indeed illegal.
In Vigilia's view, this design runs contrary to recital 50 of the Digital Services Act, which states that "The notification mechanism should allow, but not require, the identification of the individual or the entity submitting a notice."
The only exception to this rule afforded by the Digital Services Act is cases in which the notifier's identity is central to determining the legality or illegality of the content (e.g. cases of copyright claims).
These platforms' UX teams might be able to confirm that adding unnecessary steps to a user journey is the best way to discourage a user from completing a process, which would in this case result in an artificial suppression of the number of illegal content notices sent.
Consequently, Vigilia has notified the Irish Digital Services Coordinator, Coimisiún na Meán, of this possible non-compliance with the Digital Services Act.