Pornographic sites sought to escape the DSA, the young European regulation on digital services. Despite ongoing actions, the European Commission has announced that the DSA is now imposed on three of the largest platforms: Xvidéos, Pornhub and Stripchat.
They will not cut it: the main pornographic sites on the web are obliged to comply with the new regulations on digital services of the European Union (DSA, for Digital Services Act). The Commission announced this in a press release on April 19. The DSA applies to them immediately.
Three platforms are specifically targeted: Pornhub, Xvideos and Stripchat. The DSA rules came into effect on April 21 for Pornhub and Stripchat. In the case of Xvideos, the DSA is imposed on it from April 23. They are now considered as VLOPs (very large online platforms), very large online platforms.
This term refers to structures which welcome on average at least 45 million Internet users from the EU each month. This number is equivalent to 10% of the European population. Among the VLOPs already targeted, we find Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn and even YouTube.
New obligations to respect
The DSA makes the platforms “ responsible for creating safer and more transparent online spaces », notes Brussels. They were instructed “ to effectively identify and address systemic risks. » This includes the fight against illegal content, the preservation of minors and the mastery of recommendation tools.
Platforms must put in place mitigation measures for certain risks and provide assessment reports to the Commission. Obligations that it is preferable to respect, because the sanctions if the DSA is violated can increase significantly in certain circumstances. Fines, in particular, can be very heavy.
As Politico pointed out at the beginning of March, Pornhub and Stripchat presented a relatively modest profile: Pornhub is only visited by 33 million people each month, and Stripchat by 32 million Europeans. As for Xvideos, after missing an initial transparency deadline, the site ended up recognizing 150 million monthly Europeans.
Pornhub, Stripchat and Xvideos had been cataloged as VLOP in December 2023. A designation which resulted from investigations carried out by the Commission into the monthly average number of visitors from the EU. The platforms, however, filed a request with the Court of Justice of the EU to challenge this classification
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