Facebook, Twitter and Google to face stricter online content rules in EU: Report

Meta, Twitter and Google face more stringent online rules in the European Union (EU), said a report by Reuters.

Stricter rules come into play as the three big tech companies' recently released monthly user numbers exceed the EU threshold, according to the report.

According to the Digital Services Act, a new rule, any firm with more than 45 million users would be considered a very large digital platform. The platform would then be subject to certain obligations, including data sharing with authorities, external and independent auditing, risk management, and adopting a code of conduct.

Twitter estimated average monthly users in the EU, over the last 45 days, to be at 100.9 million. In the last six months of 2022, Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it had 255 million average monthly users on Facebook and 250 million on Instagram.

Alphabet Inc, parent company of Google, provided two sets of numbers. One data set was based on users' accounts and another was based on signed-out recipients. The tech firm said its average monthly number of signed-in users totalled 278.6 million users on Google Maps, 274.6 million on Google Play. 401.7 million on YouTube, 332 million on Google Search, and 74.9 million on Shopping.

The European Commission had given until February 17 for large online platforms and search engines to publish their average monthly users. The commission gives four months to very large online platforms to comply with the rules or risk paying fines.