Summary

> Reporting system
1) What content can you report?
2) What must your report contain?
3) How is reported content handled?
4) What measures are taken against manifestly illegal content?
> Internal claims processing system
 

OpenEdition Center provides users of its platforms and publishers with:

• an internal reporting system accessible here;
• measures taken in response to disputed cases;
• an internal claims processing system required by a regulation (EU) as known as ‘Digital Services Act’.

 

Reporting system

1) What content can you report?

Reporting unlawful content

Any content can be reported by a third party if the latter considers that it violates any current legal provisions.
To make a report, please write to signalement(at)openedition.org indicating the url of the content or at least the title and the author of the content.

Reporting false information

Any content can be reported by a third party if the latter considers it to be false information. "Fake Information" means inaccurate information likely to disturb public order or alter the sincerity of one of the electoral ballots within the meaning of Act No. 2018-1202 of 22 December 2018 on combating manipulation of information (the "Disinformation Act").
To make a report, please write to signalement(at)openedition.org indicating the url of the content or at least the title and the author of the content.

Reporting a quality issue

Any content can be reported by a third party if they think that it has a quality issue.
To report a quality issue, please write to contact(at)openedition.org indicating the nature of the quality issue and the url of the content or at least the title and author of the content.

 

2) What must you report containt?

In accordance with Article 6, I, 5. Of Law no. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 on Trust in the Digital Economy (the "LCEN"), a report must contain the following information :

• if the author of the report is a natural person: his or her surname, first name and e-mail address; if the author of the report is a legal entity: its corporate form, comrporate name and e-mail address; if the author of the report is an administrative authority: its name and e-mail address;
• the description of the disputed Content, its precise location and, where applicable, the url to which it is made accessible;
• the legal grounds on which the disputed Content should be remove or made inaccessible;
• a copy of the correspondence addressed to the author or Publisher of the disputed  information or activities requesting their interruption, removal or modification, or the proof that the author or Publisher could not be contacted.

 

3) How is reported content handled?

Once the OpenEdition Center team has received notification of the request, it will carry out an initial analysis of the reporting to determine whether it is:
i) a contentious case of a scientific or ethical nature or
ii) a legal dispute.

i) A contentious case of a scientific or ethical nature or

If the report concerns contentious content due to a scientific or ethical breach (for example a breach of good academic and/or scientific writing practices, a breach of Good Practices promoted by OpenEdition Center), the OpenEdition Center team:

• seek the opinion of the Scientific Board (but OpenEdition Center is not bound by this opinion)
• take an appropriate measure (among those set out below) if the contentious content is incompatible with the General Terms and Conditions of Use ("GTCU") of the platform on which it is present.

After receiving the opinion of the Scientific Board, a decision will be taken and communicated to the author of the report and, if necessary, to the publisher/director of publication of the contentious content.

Finally, for a purpose of transparency, if it is decided that the content is removed, a message indicating that the content has been removed will appear in place of the contentious content.
 

ii) A legal dispute

If the report concerns a disputed content that infringes the regulations in force, in particular the legal framework set out in the platforms' General Terms and Conditions of Use, the process for handling this report will be as follows:

Step 1)   When the report contains the electronic contact details of the person reporting the content (notifier), OpenEdition Center sends, as soon as possible, an acknowledgement of receipt of the report to the notifier.

Step 2)   The CNRS is the technical host of content published on its platforms. Then, the legal team analyses the report and the disputed content:  depending on the legal grounds invoked by the author of the report, this team will assess - in accordance with its role as host – whether the content is "manifestly unlawful " (OPTION 1) or whether there is any doubt as to whether it is "manifestly unlawful " (OPTION 2).

 

► OPTION 1: The content is manifestly unlawful, i.e., when its illegality is blatant and does not require in-depth legal examination. For example, in the case of a report of content containing racist, discriminatory, apology for terrorism or child pornography content.
In this case, the following measures will be taken:

Internally:
- Removal of unlawful content, blocking access/putting out of access as soon as the request is received (for a content on OpenEdition Books, OpenEdition Journals, Hypothèses or Calenda);
- Blocking access and account suspension (for a disputed content on Hypothèses)
- Stopping of monetisation (for a disputed content in Freemium Access on OpenEdition Books or on OpenEdition Journals).

At the same time, the legal department of one (or all) of the supervisory authorities/public regulators (i.e., CNRS, AMU, HESS, Université d'Avignon) (depending on the nature of the content reported) will be informed as soon as the report is received.

 

► OPTION 2: There is still some doubt as to whether the content is "manifestly unlawful".

In this case, the following measures will be taken:
- OpenEdition Center informs the host's legal department of the contentious case.
- The OpenEdition Center team does not take any action pending a decision by the host's legal department.
- The host's legal department will decide on the most appropriate measure to take.

A decision will be taken and communicated to the person who reported the content and, if necessary, to the publisher/director of publication of the content in question.

Finally, in a purpose of transparency, if it is decided that the content should be removed, a message indicating that the content has been removed will appear in place of the disputed content.

 

4) What measures are taken against manifestly illegal content?

In consultation with the host’s legal department:

• the removal, deactivation or deletion of manifestly unlawful content will be carried out by the OpenEdition Center team, namely:

- By the Books and Journals department for the OpenEdition Journals and OpenEdition Books platforms;
- By the Research Blogs department for the Hypotheses platform;
- By the Academic Events department for the Calenda platform.

• the cessation of monetisation where applicable if the content was in freemium access and present on the OpenEdition Books platform or OpenEdition Journals platform.

In the event of a repeat offence, that is, when an author or publisher who has already been subject to measure(s) concerning manifestly unlawful content publishes manifestly unlawful content again, the following measures will be taken:

• removal of manifestly unlawful content;
• termination of the service for that user or publisher, but only on the site of the platform on which the disputed content appeared. He/she will still be able to use other platforms;
• deletion of the publisher's account on the platform on which the manifestly unlawful content appeared.

OpenEdition Center will provide the user of platform and/or the publisher affected by the decision to impose a restriction with a clear and specific statement of reasons for the decision, at the latest at the time the restriction is applied. The statement of reasons will contain:

• Description of the measure taken;
• The facts and circumstances on the basis of which the decision was taken;
• Where appropriate, information relating to the use of automated means to take the decision;
• Where the decision concerns manifestly unlawful content, a reference to the legal basis and an explanation of the reasoning;
• Where the decision concerns content that is incompatible with the Terms and Conditions of Use, a reference to the relevant contractual clauses and an explanation of the reasoning;Clear and easily understandable information on the possibilities for appealing against this decision, in particular via the internal complaints handling system.

In all cases, the author of the report will be informed by OpenEdition Center of the decision taken and of the possibilities for appeal via the complaints handling system if the decision is not to his or her satisfaction.

 

Internal claims processing system

The regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (as known as ‘Digital Services Act’) can benefit anyone (i) who has been the subject of a measure following a report or (ii) anyone who is not satisfied with the measure taken by OpenEdition Center following the report made by it.

This regulation was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of European Union (EU) on 27 October 2022 and comes into force on 17 February 2024 with regard to structures offering "Intermediary Services" to recipients located within the EU. This regulation therefore applies to the four bodies that make up the OpenEdition Center, namely the French National Centre for Scientific Research ("CNRS"), Aix-Marseille University ("AMU"), Avignon University and the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences ("EHESS").

The author of the report and the person who published and/or wrote the disputed content will have the opportunity to contest the measure taken by OpenEdition Center if they do not agree with the decision taken. This complaint system is open to the user and the publisher for a period of 6 months from the date of communication of the decision by OpenEdition Center.

The person wishing to contest the decision should contact OpenEdition Center at the e-mail address signalement(at)openedition.org, specifying:
- the disputed content concerned;
- the subject of the report;
- his/her capacity: author of the content, author of the report, etc.;
- the reasons for contesting the measure taken.
OpenEdition Center undertakes to deal with claims as quickly as possible.

A dedicated department within OpenEdition Center is responsible for analysing complaints that are not automatically processed. The complaint will be processed taking into account the relevance of the new information provided. OpenEdition Center will also check whether the internal reporting procedure described above has been followed.

When the complaint contains sufficient grounds to consider that the complaint is well-founded, OpenEdition Center will overturn its initial decision and immediately inform the complainant and the author of the disputed content or the author of the report, as the case may be.
    
OpenEdition Center informs users and publishers of its platforms who are present in the EU that they can also turn to independent bodies (such as ARCOM for France) certified in European countries or take their case to their national courts.
 

In the event of a contradiction between the French and English versions of this page, the French version shall prevail.