OpenAI joins the club, FTC builds its case and 153m reasons to worry
Hello and welcome to Everything in Moderation's Week in Review, your need-to-know news and analysis about platform policy, content moderation and internet regulation. It's written by me, Ben Whitelaw and supported by paid members like you.
Some things don't surprise me anymore; teen products are launched without substantive evidence, Andrew Ferguson throws his weight around, identity data is leaked. Plus ça change. Platforms seemingly being happy about being regulated? Now you've got my attention.
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This is your Week in Review. Thanks for reading — Ben
Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Almost a full 12 months since it started the process, the European Commission has formally designated OpenAI‘s ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE) under the Digital Services Act — a categorisation which has perplexed one or two people — while Reddit and Roblox are now Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs).
It means each platform has passed the threshold of 45 million MAUs in Europe and will now have to comply with the toughest risk assessment and transparency obligations. With 25 other platforms now on the VLOP and VLOSE books, it's getting to be quite the workload for EU officials.
‘A proud milestone’: Unlike Amazon (EiM #315) and Pornhub (#294) in the past, all three platforms responded to the designation with, well, something akin to delight. A Reddit spokesperson said it had been “preparing to meet VLOP requirements” — making it sound like the visit of a rarely seen relative — while Roblox said it was “proud to... reach this milestone”. Even OpenAI — who might’ve pushed back at the designation as a search engine — made no mention of an appeal and explained it was “preparing to meet the additional compliance requirements”. All very friendly, then. For now.
Also in this section...
- Would The Next George Floyd Video Survive Meta’s New Teen Safety Rules? (Techdirt)
- Our approach to online safety supervision and compliance (Ofcom)
- Lords call for AI 'kill switch' powers in UK (BBC)
- Why the global push to break free from Big Tech keeps falling short (Rest of World)
Alice Hunsberger