ChatGPT has been designated a Very Large Online Platform under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), placing it alongside Reddit and Roblox under the bloc’s most demanding online safety rules.
The designation applies to platforms and search engines with at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU. ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox have until the end of December 2026 to comply with the requirements.
The DSA prohibits platforms from targeting advertisements at minors and from using sensitive personal information such as a user’s sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or political beliefs for advertising purposes.
It also requires greater transparency over the way recommendation algorithms operate, increasing the scrutiny faced by services with a significant impact on users across the European Union.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said: “These new designations mean that ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society.”
