Leading social media companies such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook’s parent organisation Meta Platforms and Twitter face stricter online content regulations for exceeding the monthly user threshold set by the European Union (EU).
The companies reported on Thursday their respective monthly active user numbers as directed by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. The tech giants had until February 17 (Friday) to submit their reports.
Under the new EU rules, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), social media companies with more than 45 million users are labelled “very large platforms”. They will be subjected to various obligations, including risk management as well as external and independent auditing. They will also be required to share data with authorities and researchers in addition to adopting a code of conduct.
The companies will have four months to comply with the EU rules or significant fines will be imposed.
According to Alphabet Inc’s report, the average monthly number of signed-in Google Maps users stood at 278.6 million, Google Play had 274.6 million, Google Search 332 million, YouTube 401.7 million, and Shopping registered 74.9 million.
Meta Platforms revealed holding 255 million average monthly active users on Facebook in the EU and 250 million on Instagram in the second half of 2022.
The EU has been introducing stricter regulations and strengthening existing laws, particularly those surrounding child safety and market monopoly, to reign in the Big Tech. Earlier this month, the European Commission reprimanded Twitter for not doing enough to counter disinformation.
According to reports, Twitter had submitted an incomplete report to the EU which was missing important details on the company’s commitments of empowering fact-checkers.
Google, Meta Platforms, TikTok and Microsoft were among the leading tech conglomerates that submitted progress reports on adherence to the EU’s strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation in the last six months.
The reports included details regarding the tech giants’ commitments to counter disinformation such as advertising revenue turned away from malicious actors, detection of manipulation across social media platforms, and information on political advertisements accepted or rejected for publication.
