The European Commission has designated ChatGPT as a “very large online search engine” and Reddit and Roblox as “very large online platforms” under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), meaning that these platforms are now subject to the strictest digital security rules.
This is stated in a press release from the European Commission.
The reason was that the number of their average monthly users in the European Union reached 45 million. So now the companies have four months (until the end of December 2026) to comply with new additional requirements.
In particular, they are obliged to assess and mitigate systemic risks associated with the operation of their services and algorithms. This concerns the spread of illegal content, the impact on minors, the physical and mental health of users, the protection of fundamental rights, electoral processes and public safety.
After this status, the European Commission will also receive the authority to investigate how the functions of these services and the systems associated with them work.
Brussels explained why the services received these categories:
- ChatGPT was classified as a search engine because it is a hybrid service that can interact with user queries, including searching for information on the Internet;
- Reddit and Roblox are considered online platforms because they allow users to distribute content created by third parties.
The European Commission will monitor compliance with the rules together with national regulators: the Irish Coimisiún na Meán — regarding ChatGPT and Reddit and the Dutch Consumer and Markets Authority (ACM) — regarding Roblox.
- The EU Digital Services Act comes into force in 2023. It aims to prevent the spread of harmful content, ban or restrict certain methods of targeting users, and require platforms to share some internal data with regulators and related academics.
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