Meta’s WhatsApp messenger (and its users) could soon become the subject of the more strict level of regulation imposed through the EU’s sweeping censorship law, the DSA.
The reason is the number of average monthly active WhatsApp users in the EU, which Meta has revealed was about 46.8 million in the second half of last year – the threshold for being considered a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) is 45 million.
But this designation does not happen automatically, since it is up to the EU Commission to decide to start treating a platform as a VLOP.
For now, Meta has not commented on the situation, while the way the DSA regulates VLOPs could make the possible inclusion of WhatsApp as yet another sticking point between the new US administration and the entrenched EU bureaucrats that concerns free speech – and the interests of US companies.
Under DSA’s VLOP rules, platforms must carry out risk assessment regarding not only illegal, but also that content Brussels considers “harmful” – and then implement mitigation strategies. Failure to do that can result in fines going up to 6 percent of a company’s annual global turnover.
Meanwhile, platforms are under obligation to report twice a year on how many users they have in the EU. Meta submitted its latest figures on February 14, saying that from July 1 until the last day of 2024, average monthly active recipients of WhatsApp channels reached approximately 46.8 million.
An active WhatsApp user is one who “opened a channel in the last 30 days as of the date of measurement,” Meta said.
Another encrypted messaging app, Telegram, which came under intense pressure from the EU last year when its CEO Pavel Durov was arrested, also submitted its numbers that it said were “significantly” under the 45 million threshold.
It seems that at least on this front, for the time being, Telegram will not have to comply with the bloc’s stricter rules, while it remains to be seen how the EU Commission will choose to deal with Meta now that its WhatsApp numbers are slightly over the DSA-determined limit – and what exact consequences that may produce.
