The European Commission has slapped more stringent regulation on three major pornography websites under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Brussels has designated Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA. The categorisation comes with heightened responsibilities regarding transparency and child protection.
Justifying the change, the EC’s self-styled “digital enforcer” Thierry Breton said all three sites had in excess of 45 million users per month.
“The criteria to determine if a platform is very large in the sense of the Digital Services Act are very straight forward: any online platform with more than 45 million users in the European Union has special obligations because of its scale,” he said.
Breton added he had been “very clear” that the DSA was about “creating a safer online environment” for children in Europe. The three adult sites will now have increased obligations under the EU digital legislation.
EC spokesman for digital economy Johannes Bahrke insisted imposing the DSA rules on those websites was important due to the “wealth” of their European user base.
“You, of course, don’t know them,” he said on X. “But more than 45 million Europeans do.”
“More than 10 per cent of Europeans are active monthly users [of these websites],” he added, saying that the platforms must now work with the EU to crack down on “systemic issues” such as child abuse material.
Responding to a request for comment from Brussels Signal, a spokesman for Pornhub rejected the idea that the platform was now seeing more than 45 million EU users monthly, instead putting it at 33 million.
“Have they explained to you why, if the threshold is 45 million, they decided to classify a platform with 33 million visitors a VLOP?” the spokesman asked.
Under the DSA, Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat will now need to be more transparent with their users regarding how their algorithms work.
They will also be required to hand over technical data to do with their recommendation systems to European officials, as well as independent researchers.
The Europe Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) will help protect children from pornography, according to EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton. https://t.co/sQskX5bBQX
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 11, 2023
The EC’s decision to tighten regulations on the three sites comes after widespread concern about illegal sexual content on the internet.
Advocacy groups have repeatedly warned about child sexual content being uploaded to porn websites, as well as both real and fictional depictions of rape.
Non-consensual recordings of sex are also increasingly an issue, with so-called “revenge porn” and spy-camera recordings also gaining the attention of regulators.
Issues to do with how adult sex sites recommend videos to users have also become prominent in recent weeks. An investigative report found that some companies in the industry may be serving “straight” users with bisexual, transexual and gay content in the hope they can “convert” some users.
European Commissioner @ThierryBreton has announced an official investigation into @ElonMusk’s X amid allegations the social media platform has made numerous violations of the EU’s Digital Services Act. https://t.co/ASil3I2sIj
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 18, 2023
