Tracking the First Digital Services Act Transparency Reports

Gabby Miller is Staff Writer at Tech Policy Press. European Commission Building- Brussels, Belgium The Digital Services Act (DSA), Europe’s sweeping regulation of online platforms, requires that the largest tech firms submit regular transparency reports to stay compliant with the law. The deadline for Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Search Engines (VLOSEs) to publish their first reports was on Monday, Nov. 6, with all nineteen companies that meet the “very large” threshold making the cutoff.  Tech Policy Press has updated its DSA compliance tracker with new information and links to the first transparency reports, ad repositories, notice and action mechanism portals, and points of contacts for DSA-related inquiries. The DSA came fully into effect on Nov. 16, 2022. It is the European Union’s most ambitious regulatory effort to crack down on illegal content, minimize online harms, and promote a more open internet. “Very Large” designations were issued on April 25 to platforms and search engines with at least 45 million monthly active users, including social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) and search engines such as Google and Microsoft’s Bing. The pathway to full compliance for VLOPs and VLOSEs began on Aug. 25, with some companies publicly releasing detailed plans for fulfilling their obligations.   While a number of Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines like Meta, Google, and Snap regularly publish their own transparency reports, some new DSA disclosure obligations include: Content moderation transparency, including the number of dedicated human resources broken down by EU…Tracking the First Digital Services Act Transparency Reports