WhatsApp follows in the footsteps of the Meta companies Instagram and Facebook. The European Commission will give WhatsApp the VLOP (Open Channels Very Large Online Platform) designation under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Bloomberg Information. The commission has yet to make a public announcement about this, but has reportedly already informed Meta.
This label gives the EU greater regulatory powers over WhatsApp in areas such as content moderation and data sharing. WhatsApp must also conduct an independent annual audit and adopt transparent advertising practices, among other things.
The new brand is not really a surprise. In February, WhatsApp announced that there would be an average of 46.8 million users in the EU in the second half of 2024. The DSA says the VLOP designation should be awarded when a platform has more than 45 million monthly users in the EU.
This designation applies exclusively to the “Open Channels” feature of WhatsApp. Individual messages must not be compromised in any way and must remain confidential between the parties involved. In addition to Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp joins companies such as Amazon, Google and ByteDance VLOP designation.