Google parent Alphabet, Facebook parent Meta and Twitter have all reportedly exceeded regulatory thresholds in the European Union, according to monthly user data released by the companies. This means that these companies will face stricter scrutiny of their online content.
The new EU regulations, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), will force tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content or face fines equivalent to up to 6% of global turnover.
Under the bill, platforms with more than 45 million users are considered “very large online platforms” and will be subject to obligations such as risk management and external and independent audits. Additionally, they are required to share data with regulators and researchers.
The European Commission gave online platforms and search engines until February 17 to publish their monthly active user numbers. Very large online platforms have a four-month reprieve to comply with the Digital Services Act or risk fines.
Twitter has said its average monthly user in the EU is 100.9 million, based on data from the past 45 days.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, provides one set of monthly user figures based on user accounts, and another set of monthly user figures based on accounts that are not logged in, because users can access its services whether they are logged in or not.
Alphabet data shows that Google Maps has an average of 278.6 million logged-in users per month, Google Play has 274.6 million logged-in users, Google Search has 332 million logged-in users, and Google Shopping has 74.9 million logged-in users, compared to YouTube’s monthly average of 401.7 million logged-in users.
Earlier this week, Meta said its Facebook app would average 255 million monthly active users in the EU in the second half of 2022, while its Instagram app would average around 250 million monthly active users.
