Since June 2025, HateAid holds a status that received almost no press coverage: EU Trusted Flagger under Article 22 of the Digital Services Act. What that means: platforms such as Meta, YouTube and X are legally required to process HateAid’s reports faster and with priority. Not as a courtesy — as a legal obligation.
Who holds that status is therefore not an academic question.
What a Trusted Flagger Is#
The EU’s Digital Services Act created a new category: Trusted Flaggers. Organisations with this status can report content they consider illegal to major platforms — and the platform must treat those reports with priority.
Art. 22 DSA: platforms must treat Trusted Flagger reports “with priority” and reach decisions faster than for ordinary user reports.
In Germany, the status is awarded by the Bundesnetzagentur — the national DSA coordination authority.
HateAid: Who Is Behind It#
HateAid gGmbH, founded 2018, describes itself as a counselling and legal aid organisation for victims of online hate.
Its ownership structure:
| Shareholder | Stake |
|---|---|
| Campact e.V. | 33.32% |
| Fearless Democracy | Co-founder |
| Others | Remainder |
Campact e.V. is not a non-partisan educational charity — it is a political campaign platform that describes itself as a “citizens’ movement” and actively mobilises for specific political positions.
Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, HateAid’s managing director, came from Campact.
State funding: Since 2021, HateAid has received at least €2.2 million from the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs.
The Path from Campaign to Law#
August 2024: HateAid sends a list of demands to federal ministries and Bundestag parliamentary groups. Content: new criminal offences, including the criminalisation of deepfake pornography without consent.
The law passes. The demand list becomes policy.
The documented pipeline:
Campact (political campaign org, 33% stake)
→ HateAid (director from Campact, €2.2m state funding)
→ Demand list to ministries → Law enacted
→ EU Trusted Flagger (platforms legally must prioritise)A campaign organisation shapes direction through a 33% stake — and the subsidiary holds legal leverage over platform content moderation and direct access to the legislative process.
What This Means Structurally#
Trusted Flagger status is not an honorary title. It is a legal instrument. Whoever holds it can compel platforms to accelerate content removal — without a court ruling, without public debate, with institutional priority.
The Bundesnetzagentur certifies. The platforms comply. The flagging organisation decides what gets flagged.
An organisation that is one-third owned by a political campaign platform, whose director came from that campaign platform, that uses state funding to shape legislation, and that now holds a state-issued legal instrument for prioritised platform moderation — that organisation should not hold this status.
This is not a question that was not raised. It is a finding.
The Bundesnetzagentur certified it anyway. In June 2025. Without public debate.
Sources: HateAid (hateaid.org/hateaid-wird-trusted-flagger/); Bundesnetzagentur press release (02.06.2025); Art. 22 Digital Services Act (EU); Haintz.Media: “From Campaign to Legislation”; HateAid Wikipedia; Federal Ministry for Family Affairs (funding data).
