ChatGPT is now in the EU’s regulatory crosshairs, as Brussels moves to subject the AI chatbot to tougher safety obligations in a first-of-its-kind step for generative AI under the bloc’s flagship content rules.
The European Commission also added Reddit and Roblox to its roster of “very large” online platforms — a classification that brings heightened legal responsibilities and closer oversight.
“ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society,” EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen said.
The “very large” label applies to platforms and search engines that exceed 45 million monthly active users across the 27-member bloc, a threshold the commission said ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox reported meeting.
Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the trio now has four months to meet a new set of requirements — part of what has become the EU’s most potent legal toolkit in its drive over recent years to rein in Big Tech.
Roblox, alongside Reddit, will also face tougher EU scrutiny
Brussels said the obligations include “assessing and mitigating the systemic risks stemming from their service and algorithmic systems related to the dissemination of illegal content, the negative effects on minors, users’ physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security,” placing an emphasis on how services shape what people see and how they experience online platforms.
To bring ChatGPT under the DSA’s supervisory scope, the commission classified it as a search engine.
Lena-Maria Boswald, of the German tech thinktank Interface, said ahead of the announcement that the expected move would set a “precedent” and “influence the regulatory expectations for every large generative AI system used in the EU”.
“OpenAI already has risk-management obligations under the AI Act, but the DSA could widen the scope,” she said.
The commission’s expanded scrutiny will also cover Roblox — a gaming platform where users can create their own games and share them — as well as Reddit, the widely used online forum.
The new designations arrive as the EU intensifies enforcement actions against some of the world’s largest digital services, many of them American, despite strong pushback from the US and threats of retaliation.
More recently, Brussels told TikTok — one of roughly 30 other platforms already listed — to alter what it described as an addictive design or risk substantial fines.
And last year it hit Elon Musk’s social media platform X with a €120m fine for breaching transparency obligations and other violations.
