The Electronic Frontier Foundation examines major tech companies’ content moderation policies in the midst of massive government pressure to censor, assessing companies annually in their "Who Has Your Back" report.

Provides Meaningful Notice To earn a star in this category, the service provider must publicly commit to provide meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension, unless prohibited by law, in very narrow and defined emergency situations,* or if doing so would be futile or ineffective**.

For legal takedowns and suspensions, the notice must (1) identify the specific content that allegedly violates the law, and (2) inform the user that it was a legal takedown request. If the takedown is a “geoblock”—that is, a content restriction limited to the jurisdiction where the provider is legally required to restrict it—then the users must also be notified of the geographic scope of the takedown. For policy takedowns and suspensions, this notice must (1) identify the specific content that allegedly violates a provider policy, and (2) include the specific provider policy the content allegedly violates.

* The exceptions should not be broader than the emergency exceptions provided in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC § 2702 (b)(8): “if the provider, in good faith, believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure without delay of communications relating to the emergency[.]”

** An example of a futile scenario would be if a user’s account has been compromised or their mobile device stolen, and informing the “user“ would concurrently—or only—inform the attacker.