BackTHESE companies face tougher EU online content rules
The new EU online content rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) label companies with over 45 million users as very large online platforms and subject to obligations such as risk management and external and independent auditing.
PremiumAlphabet Inc's Google, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc, and Twitter have released user numbers published on Thursday, according to which, the companies face stricter EU online content rules and exceeded the threshold, according to news agency Reuters.
The new rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) label companies with over 45 million users as very large online platforms and subject to obligations such as risk management and external and independent auditing. The companies are also required to share data with the authorities and researchers along with adopting a code of conduct.
The European Commission had given online platforms and search engines until February 17 to publish their monthly active users. Very large online platforms have four months to comply with the rules or risk fines, Reuters reported.
According to the data, Twitter has 100.9 million average monthly users in the EU, based on an estimation of the last 45 days.
Alphabet provided one set of numbers based on users' accounts and another set based on signed-out recipients, saying users can access its services whether they sign in to an account or are signed out.
It said the average monthly number of signed-in users totaled 278.6 million at Google Maps, 274.6 million at Google Play, 332 million at Google Search, 74.9 million at Shopping, and 401.7 million at YouTube, as per Reuters reports.
Meta Platforms said it had 255 million average monthly active users on Facebook in the EU and about 250 million average monthly active users on Instagram in the last six months of 2022.
Meanwhile, Chinese social media company TikTok is likely to be subject to stricter EU online content rules because its number of active users exceeds a threshold set out under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
"We do expect that our EU user base will meet the quantitative criteria to be considered a very large online platform, but are still waiting for the designation process foreseen by the DSA to understand whether we will be classified as such," Caroline Greer, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations, told Reuters.
The landmark rules take a tougher line on very large online platforms, characterising these as companies with more than 45 million users.
(With Reuters inputs)
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