A Digital Platform Ombudsman?

The idea that users might be able to take complaints about digital platforms to an ombudsman is compelling. While platforms vary considerably in the products and services they offer, there’s also great variation in the ways complaints are handled. Sometimes, a user just wants to flag a piece of content, but there are also times when they want to make a formal complaint and expect platforms to respond.
  
Is it possible to establish a scheme or body to hear escalated complaints about digital platforms?  This week CMT published a new research report – Digital Platform Complaint Handling: Options for an External Dispute Resolution Scheme – that addresses this topic. We set out to consider one of the recommendations from the ACCC in the Digital Platforms Inquiry – that an external dispute resolution scheme should be established, perhaps building on the existing role of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).  

Focusing on social media, and examining the ways users make complaints to Facebook, we designed a matrix of complaints that classifies the issues in two ways: firstly, according to whether they involve some kind of transaction or, instead, have a social dimension; and secondly, whether users are complaining about other users or about the actions of digital platforms themselves. We also looked at the role of some government and industry bodies that already have some role in the resolution of digital platform complaints. 

Our research shows that while it would be possible for an expanded TIO to handle some types of digital platform complaints, other complaints would still likely fall between the gaps.  But this option could also compound an existing problem relating to the fragmentation of responsibility for digital platform complaints: users already face a confusing array of government and other bodies. Adding the TIO to that mix – without giving it comprehensive coverage and maintaining the role of those other bodies – could add to the current confusion.  

One possible solution we identified for addressing this confusion is to establish a clearing house for escalated digital platform complaints. This would effectively be a referral and tracking service that could help users identify the right home for their complaint, while also monitoring the volume of complaints and some aspects of industry performance. 

Having completed our report, partly funded by a research grant from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, we’re now considering how we might promote discussion of some of its ideas in a seminar or roundtable. 

Derek Wilding, CMT Co-Director

 

This was featured in our eNewsletter of 5 August, read it in full here. To subscribe to have it direct to your inbox fortnightly, sign up here.