The European Commission adopted, on Tuesday 25 April, its first designation decisions under the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13163/26) for very large digital platforms and online search engines. This first round of designations includes 17 very large digital platforms and two search engines with at least 45 million active monthly users in the EU.
Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and Snapchat make up the ‘social networks’ category of this list, alongside online marketplaces such asAlibaba, Amazon Market and Zalando. The two search engines Google Search and Bing (Microsoft) are also on the list, as are Wikipedia, YouTube and Booking.com.
But the list is expected to grow in the coming months, a European Commission official said. “We will find other platforms, including some adult sites, with a large audience. We are in contact with some platforms, at least the big ones. We are trying to better understand the calculation methodology”, the official said, echoing the two figures published by the company Zalando. The larger of the two was deemed to be more in line with the Commission’s calculation method, bringing the company within the scope of the text.
In addition, some messaging services, such as WhatsApp, do not appear in the list, unlike some social networks that also have a messaging system. “There is a distinction. The primary function of Snapchat, for example, is to be a social medium, just like Instagram. What we took into account for the DSA was that part of the service offered, not the messaging service”, commented the same European official.
Similarly, the question could also arise, given recent developments and deployment in the field, for artificial intelligence systems, such as ChatGPT.
“We are in contact with them”, said a European Commission official, adding that this type of system was more likely to be covered by future legislation on artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 13168/12). “In the DSA, what matters are the particular situations where systems such as ChatGPT are combined with very large online platforms. If they are linked with Google, Bing or YouTube, for example, then this will be included in the DSA obligations”, he added.
The very large online platforms and search engines have 4 months to comply. In addition to a strict set of rules for platforms, users will, among other things, be provided with information on why certain information is recommended to them and will be able to easily report illegal content.
“We will now try to understand better how platforms handle the protection of minors online, asking them for more information on this subject. The other issues are not less important, but this is something we are paying particular attention to”, concluded the same European Commission official. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)