WhatsApp might soon be subject to stricter scrutiny under the EU's Digital Services Act

European Commission News

WhatsApp might soon be subject to stricter scrutiny under the EU's Digital Services Act
European UnionDSAChannels Feature
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Meta's messaging app WhatsApp could soon be subject to deeper scrutiny under the European Commission 's Digital Services Act,grew to around 51.7 million average monthly active users in the European Union in the first six months of 2025, the feature has crossed the 45-million-person barrier that lets DSA rules apply.

or VLOP once it has 45 million monthly users or more, according to the European Commission. Once an app or service passes that amount, it's subject to the DSA and all its rules about how digital platforms should operate, particularly around removing illegal or harmful content. Companies can be fined up to six percent of their global annual revenue for not complying with the DSA. WhatsApp traditionally functions as a private messaging app, but its Channels feature, which lets users make one-sided posts to anyone who follows their channel, does look a lot more like Meta's other social media platforms. "So here we would indeed designate potentially WhatsApp for WhatsApp Channels and I can confirm that the Commission is actively looking into it and I wouldn't exclude a future designation," a Commission spokesperson said in a daily news briefingEngadget has asked Meta to comment on WhatsApp’s possible new designation. We’ll update this article if we hear back.in October 2025 because of how it asks users to report illegal content on Facebook and Instagram. Earlier that month, a Dutch court alsoto change how it presents the timelines on its platforms because people in the Netherlands were not "sufficiently able to make free and autonomous choices about the use of profiled recommendation systems" in the company's apps.

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