The European Commission has formally designated ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox as either Very Large Online Platforms or Very Large Online Search Engines under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), subjecting them to the bloc's most stringent tier of digital regulation. The three services now have four months — until the end of November — to comply with a new set of obligations.

The DSA, one of the EU's landmark digital governance laws, applies its strictest rules to platforms that reach at least 45 million monthly users in the bloc. All three services have declared they meet this threshold. ChatGPT, the AI chatbot developed by US company OpenAI, has been classified as a Very Large Online Search Engine — the first AI language model to receive this designation — with more than 159 million monthly EU users. Reddit, the discussion-forum platform organised around topic-based communities, and Roblox, the gaming and game-development platform popular among younger audiences, have been classified as Very Large Online Platforms, with 57 million and 46.6 million monthly EU users respectively.

Under the DSA's elevated requirements, the newly designated services must conduct regular risk assessments, submit to independent external audits, share data with researchers, and take concrete steps to protect minors from harm. They must also work to limit risks to fundamental rights, electoral processes, and public security. The European Commission gains investigative powers to scrutinise the platforms' internal systems and algorithms. Companies that commit serious or repeated violations face fines of up to 6% of their global annual turnover.

EU Digital Commissioner Henna Virkkunen said ChatGPT would be subject to