A disputed flag is whenever your flag was dismissed as neither helpful or declined, someone reviewed your flag but no conclusive action was taken. This is intended for use in cases where the validity of a flag is ambiguous. 

Currently, the following scenarios may result in a flag being disputed:

- A spam or offensive flag which is *cleared* (but not declined) by a moderator. These flags are unique in that they can impose lasting penalties on both the post and author, so a special mechanism is provided for them to be cleared without penalizing either the author or the flagger.
- A Not An Answer flag or Very Low Quality flag is reviewed in the Low Quality review queue, and the result of the review is "Looks OK". 
- A Recommend Close flag is active on a post reviewed in the Triage review queue when the result of the review is "Looks OK".
- A Spam, Offensive, or Very Low Quality flag is active on a post reviewed in the Triage review queue when the result of the review is "Should be Improved".

Disputed flags are considered neither helpful nor declined, regardless of the action taken in response to them.

See also: [What is the difference between disputed and declined flags?](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/141292/)

  [1]: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/moderator-tools