Overview
- The European Commission on Monday designated ChatGPT as a "very large online search engine" and Reddit and Roblox as "very large online platforms" under the Digital Services Act, placing them in the DSA's strictest supervision category.
- Each service crossed the DSA threshold of 45 million EU users, with company-reported counts of roughly 159 million for ChatGPT, 57 million for Reddit and 46.6 million for Roblox.
- Designated firms must carry out immediate risk assessments and put mitigation measures in place for harms to minors, election integrity and public safety, and they have four months to comply or face fines up to 6% of global turnover or possible market bans.
- Officials and experts say labeling ChatGPT as a search engine brings platform-level scrutiny of how the service operates and uses data, which could expand oversight beyond the AI Act's focus on model-level risks.
- The Commission's action expands a list of about 28 very large services that it has used since 2024 to investigate and sanction major online actors, a step that may change how large platforms and AI tools are regulated in Europe.