EU Designates 19 Tech Giants For Stricter Online Content Rules

On Tuesday, the European Union announced that 19 online platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, will have to follow stricter content rules. These rules apply to platforms with a large number of followers, such as Amazon, Google, Meta, Instagram, and Microsoft, all of which have over 45 million active users.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) will now classify social media platforms with a large number of followers. Effective August, the act will include measures such as annual audits and the obligation to counter disinformation and hate content.

Read more: Biden Calls For Antitrust Push To Rein In Tech Giants

The EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, stated that in four months, platforms and search engines will no longer be able to act as if they are too large to care, reported Reuters. 

“This new supervision system will cast a wide and tight net and catch all points of failure in a platform’s compliance,” he added.

Platforms that meet the 45-million-plus threshold include Elon Musk-owned Twitter, Alphabet’s Google Search, Google Maps, Google Shopping and Google Play units as well as its YouTube subsidiary; and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.

Others on the list are Microsoft’s LinkedIn, Apple’s iOS App Store, Wikipedia, messaging app Snapchat and creative image website Pinterest.