WhatsApp may face greater regulation in the European Union thanks to an increase in users on its open channels. The platform announced Friday that these feeds for news sources, public figures and more averaged approximately 46.8 million users in the EU during the last half of 2024. This increase in users means WhatsApp’s open channels, akin to a social network, now qualify as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA uses the labels very large online platform or search engine when the entity has more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. These designations allow the European Commission greater regulatory power around transparent advertising, content moderation, an annual independent audit, data sharing with the EU and more. Relevant online platforms must also mitigate and assess the risk of damaging and illegal content.
WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, is already designated as a VLOP (and not happily), alongside ByteDance, Amazon, Google and more. The European Commission will now need to determine whether to give WhatsApp the designation.
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