EU to make WhatsApp more responsible for tackling harmful content

BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - ⁠The European Commission ⁠on ‍Monday said it had formally designated Meta's WhatsApp as a "very large platform" under the EU's ‍Digital Services Act (DSA), making it more responsible for ​tackling illegal and harmful content.

The Commission said on January 15 it ​was considering designating WhatsApp's "channels" feature as a very large platform. The messaging service is not affected.

The channels had 51.7 million average monthly active ​users in the EU in the first six months of 2025, more than the 45-million-user threshold set ​out in the DSA.

The DSA requires such large platforms to do more to ‌tackle illegal and harmful content, which can become costly for the platforms given the volume ​of data to be scanned, and ⁠raises questions of privacy.

Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Google's YouTube, TikTok, Temu and Microsoft's LinkedIn ‌are some of the companies labelled as very large online platforms under the DSA subject to this requirement.

"Following the designation, Meta, ‌the provider of WhatsApp, has four months, i.e. by mid-May 2026, ‌to ensure WhatsApp complies with the additional DSA obligations," the Commission said in a statement.

A spokesperson for WhatsApp said that, as its ‍channels keep growing in the EU and elsewhere, "we remain committed to evolving our safety ⁠and integrity measures in the region, ensuring they align with relevant regulatory expectations and our ongoing responsibility to users".

(Reporting by Yun Chee Foo, writing by Louise Rasmussen; editing by Inti Landauro and Kevin Liffey)

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