DSA compliance.

01Scope

Message.com LLC provides hosting services within the meaning of Article 3(g)(iii) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (the Digital Services Act, or "DSA"). This policy explains how we meet the obligations that apply to hosting providers operating in the European Union.

We are not a very large online platform or a very large online search engine within the meaning of Article 33 DSA. The additional obligations that apply to designated VLOPs and VLOSEs do not apply to us; we publish our approach to those topics anyway, in the interest of transparency.

02Designated EU representative

As a provider established outside the European Union, we have designated a legal representative in the Union under Article 13 DSA. The representative acts as the point of contact for the Commission, the European Board for Digital Services, the Member States, and recipients of our service for matters relating to the DSA.

The representative's contact details, once formally appointed, are published below and at our website footer. Customers and end users may also reach the representative through [email protected]. We update this page within 30 days of any change.

EU Representative (placeholder)
Name, address, and contact details to be appointed before EU market entry, in coordination with our EU establishment plan. Until appointment is recorded with the Commission, EU enquiries should be addressed to [email protected] and will be acknowledged within one business day.

03Notice and action mechanism

Anyone may notify us of content hosted on the Service that they consider to be illegal under EU or Member State law. Notices are submitted to [email protected] and should include, in line with Article 16(2) DSA:

• A sufficiently substantiated explanation of why the content is considered illegal.
• A clear indication of the exact electronic location of the content (URL, conversation ID, message ID).
• The name and contact information of the notifier, unless the notice concerns offences described in Articles 3 to 7 of Directive 2011/93/EU (child sexual abuse material), in which case anonymous notices are accepted.
• A statement of good faith that the information in the notice is accurate and complete.

We confirm receipt of every notice without undue delay. Notices that satisfy the elements above give rise to actual knowledge for the purpose of Article 6 DSA. We act on actionable notices expeditiously, applying a proportionality test that considers the type of content, the severity, and the rights of the affected parties.

04Statement of reasons

When we restrict the visibility of specific content, suspend or terminate the provision of a service, suspend or terminate an account, or restrict monetisation in relation to information provided by a recipient of the Service, we provide a clear and specific statement of reasons to the affected recipient under Article 17 DSA. The statement includes:

• The action taken and its territorial scope.
• The facts and circumstances relied on, including whether the action was triggered by a notice, by our own initiative, or by an order from an authority.
• The legal grounds, including (where relevant) the contractual ground in our Terms of Service.
• Information on the recipient's right to appeal through our internal complaint-handling system, an out-of-court dispute settlement body, and judicial redress.

We publish the statements of reasons to the Commission's DSA Transparency Database once we are connected to it, with personal data redacted in line with Article 24(5) DSA.

05Internal complaint-handling system

Recipients of the Service may lodge a complaint against any decision described in section 4 above, for a period of at least six months from the decision. Complaints are submitted to [email protected] and are reviewed by a person who was not involved in the original decision.

We process complaints in a timely, non-discriminatory, diligent, and non-arbitrary manner. We reverse the original decision where the complaint demonstrates that the content was not illegal, that it did not breach our terms, or that the action was disproportionate.

The complaint-handling process does not preclude the complainant from pursuing any other remedy, including the out-of-court dispute settlement option below.

06Out-of-court dispute settlement

Recipients of the Service are entitled to select any certified out-of-court dispute settlement body to resolve disputes about our decisions, under Article 21 DSA. We will engage in good faith with any such body certified by the Digital Services Coordinator of a Member State and we will be bound by its decision insofar as the DSA requires.

A current list of certified bodies is maintained by each Member State's Digital Services Coordinator. We do not impose a particular body on recipients.

07Trusted flaggers

We give priority treatment to notices submitted by entities awarded the status of "trusted flagger" under Article 22 DSA by a Digital Services Coordinator. Trusted flaggers must indicate their status in the notice. We track the number of notices submitted by each trusted flagger and the action taken on each in our annual transparency report.

We reserve the right to suspend processing of notices from a flagger that we determine, after warning, has submitted a significant number of insufficiently precise, inaccurate, or inadequately substantiated notices, in line with Article 23 DSA.

08Transparency reporting

Once per calendar year, we publish a transparency report covering the prior period. The report includes the volume of notices received under section 3, broken down by category of alleged illegal content; the volume of own-initiative content moderation actions; the median response time; the number of complaints handled under section 5; and the outcomes of out-of-court dispute settlements.

The first report covers the period from the effective date of this policy. Past reports remain available on this page after subsequent reports are published.

09Cooperation with authorities

We respond to orders to act against specific items of illegal content issued by Member State authorities under Article 9 DSA, and to orders to provide information under Article 10 DSA. Orders must meet the conditions set out in those articles, including a clear statement of reasons, specific information that enables us to identify and assess the content, and a clear legal basis under Union or Member State law.

We inform the recipient of the Service affected by the order without undue delay, unless prohibited by the order or applicable law. We also send the order to the Digital Services Coordinator from the Member State of the issuing authority and to the Commission, as required.

10Risk assessments

As a hosting provider that is not a VLOP, we are not required to carry out the systemic risk assessments described in Article 34 DSA. We nevertheless maintain an internal risk register that tracks the categories of illegal content most often notified to us, the impact of our automated tools on the rights of recipients, and the appropriateness of our mitigation measures. We review the register at least once a year and adjust our policies and engineering controls based on what we find.

11Prohibited content categories

The following categories of content are not permitted on the Service. The full list and our enforcement procedure are in the Acceptable Use Policy. A summary, for DSA purposes:

• Child sexual abuse material and content sexualising minors.
• Content that incites violence, terrorism, or hatred against protected groups.
• Material that constitutes harassment, threats, or non-consensual intimate imagery.
• Counterfeit goods and other infringements of intellectual property rights.
• Fraud, scams, deceptive commercial practices, and impersonation.
• Content that violates EU consumer protection law or specific Member State law applicable to the recipient.

12Crisis response

In the event of a crisis (including extraordinary circumstances affecting public security or public health), we cooperate with the Commission and Member State authorities to implement proportionate, necessary, and time-limited measures, in line with Articles 36 and 48 DSA. Any measures we take in response to a crisis are documented and reflected in the next transparency report.