WhatsApp has hit a consumer criterion set out in landmark EU tech guidelines, the unit owned by Meta Platforms mentioned, which means it’s required to do extra to sort out on-line unlawful and dangerous content material.
Messaging platform WhatsApp in a February 14 submitting mentioned it had about 46.8 million common month-to-month lively customers within the 27-country European Union within the six month interval to December 2024, above the 45-million-user threshold set out within the Digital Services Act (DSA).
“We will certainly affirm that WhatsApp has revealed consumer numbers above the edge for designation as a Very Massive On-line Platform beneath the Digital Companies Act,” European Fee spokesperson Thomas Regnier mentioned in an e mail on Wednesday.
After receiving the designation, a platform has 4 months to adjust to the DSA necessities together with figuring out and assessing system dangers associated to unlawful content material, elementary rights, public safety and safety of minors.
Fines for DSA violations can attain as a lot as 6 p.c of an organization’s world annual income. Meta’s Instagram and Facebook are already labeled as very massive on-line platforms.
Meta Chief Government Mark Zuckerberg and its chief lobbyist Joel Kaplan have criticised EU tech guidelines and enlisted the help of US President Donald Trump.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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