The European Commission has announced that WhatsApp has been designated as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act. This will have various implications for WhatsApp and Meta.
The VLOP designation – which recognizes the fact that the platform has at least 45 million users within the European Union – means that WhatsApp will face additional scrutiny from European regulators.
What the designation means in practice is that Meta will have to provide far more detailed reports about moderation, performance and usage than before. Until very recently, WhatsApp has been able to avoid this extra work by virtue of being seen as a private messaging app. But the European Commission has decided that the platform has changes significantly enough to justify slapping it with a new label.
The announcement from the European Commission reads:
The European Commission has formally designated WhatsApp as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA), as its ‘Channels’ feature reaches the designation threshold of at least 45 million users in the EU.
WhatsApp is a hybrid service comprising features of private messaging and of an online platform. WhatsApp Channels, the feature of WhatsApp that allows recipients to disseminate information, updates and announcements to a broad audience of WhatsApp users, falls under the definition of an online platform service and is therefore already subject to the general DSA obligations that online platforms in the EU must respect. WhatsApp’s private messaging service enabling users to send text messages, voice notes, photos, videos, documents, and make voice and video calls to other users remains explicitly excluded from the application of the DSA.
Following the designation, Meta, the provider of WhatsApp, has four months, i.e. by mid-May 2026, to ensure WhatsApp complies with the additional DSA obligations for VLOPs. These obligations include duly assessing and mitigating any systemic risks, such as violations of fundamental human rights and freedom of expression, electoral manipulation, the dissemination of illegal content and privacy concerns, stemming from its services.
Following its designation as a very large online platform, the Commission will be competent to supervise WhatsApp’s compliance with the DSA, in cooperation with Coimisiún na Meán, the Irish Digital Services Coordinator.
Failure to comply with the requirements that the new designation entails could mean that Meta faces fines from the EU. And with the company already paying hefty fines to the Union, this latest news is not going to be received well by the social media giant.
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