The EU plans to include ChatGPT and Roblox among the very large online platforms (VLOPs) of the DSA in August.

The European Union plans to classify ChatGPT and Roblox as “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs) starting in August, in accordance with the Digital Services Act (DSA), after they surpassed 45 million monthly users.

The European Union’s DSA establishes a set of mandatory rules for large companies offering digital services. Its aim is to guarantee the protection of users’ rights in member states, as well as to promote innovation, growth, and competitiveness of these platforms within the single market.

The VLOP category, according to European Union regulations, is granted to any service or search engine that exceeds 45 million monthly users in the bloc, a status already held by ChatGPT and Roblox.

In this context, according to a source close to the companies who spoke to Bloomberg, both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the video game company Roblox Corp. will join the VLOP (Virtual Platforms of Platforms) in August, as has previously happened with other platforms such as Google Maps, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, X, and YouTube, among others.

While the DSA (Directive Security Act) requires all social media and search engines to take drastic measures against illegal and harmful content on their platforms, those designated as VLOPs must also submit transparency reports, detail their risk mitigation plans, and pay an annual fee to the European Commission.

In other words, in the four months following their designation, they must be actively involved not only in identifying risks in their services related to illegal content, electoral processes, or freedom of expression, among others, but also in establishing a point of contact with authorities and users, deploying user-friendly terms and conditions, and being transparent in their advertising, recommendation systems, and content moderation decisions.

Similarly, they must undergo annual audits to ensure they have adopted the measures recommended by the auditors, share their data with the European Commission, and allow access to this data for accredited researchers.

Furthermore, those that violate the DSA risk fines of up to 6 percent of their global sales. In fact, among the more than a dozen cases that have been opened, the most prominent sanctioned VLOP was that of X (formerly Twitter), which received a fine of €120 million imposed by the Commission on December 5 of last year.

It is also worth noting that one of the DSA’s main objectives is for technology companies to protect minors on their platforms. However, Roblox itself, which has been criticized for its lack of security controls for protecting children, recently integrated measures that regulate the spaces where users can interact with others and the types of games they can play.

At the moment, neither the spokesperson for the European Commission nor OpenAI or Roblox have commented on the matter.