BRUSSELS: Because to their enormous user bases, tech companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and TikTok are subject to severe online content rules in the European Union.
The Digital Services Act (DSA), a new set of regulations, designates organizations with over 45 million users as very large online platforms (VLOPs) and mandates risk management and external, independent auditing.
Companies will also need to adopt a code of conduct and share data with researchers and regulators. Online services and search engines have until February 17 to report their monthly active users, according to the European Commission. It gave vulpes four months to follow the guidelines or face penalties.
Using data from the previous 45 days, Twitter reported on Thursday that there were 100.9 million average monthly users in the EU. In order to prove that customers can access its services whether we signed them into an account, Google’s owner Alphabet produced two sets of statistics: one based on receivers who in and the other set based on recipients who were signed out.
According to the report, Google Maps had 278.6 million monthly active users, Google Play had 274.6 million, Google Search had 332 million, Shopping had 74.9 million, and YouTube had 401.7 million.
Apple claimed that the only online platform with over 45 million monthly users and designed specifically for its iPhones was the App Store. But it will also apply the same guidelines to its paid subscriptions for Apple Books e-books and podcasts, as well as the App Store for iPads, Mac computers, Apple Watch, and TV.
According to a statement on its website, “Apple wants to match each of the current App Store versions (even those that do not yet satisfy the VLOP classification criteria) with the existing DSA requirements for VLOPs on an entirely voluntary basis.”
While Microsoft reported its Bing search engine had 107 million average monthly users in the final six months of 2022, Amazon claimed to have over 45 million users in the EU.
From August 1 of last year to January 31 of this year, AliExpress, an e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba Group Holding, reported an average of over 45 million monthly active users in the EU.
Using data from the last 45 days as a basis, TikTok has about 100.9 million monthly users in the EU.It was below the EU user barrier, according to eBay.
According to Meta Platforms, in the final half of 2022, there were approximately 250 million average monthly active users on Instagram and 255 million average monthly active users on Facebook in the EU. Businesses must submit user statistics reports every six months.
