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Brussels, February 21, 2025 – Alphabet’s mapping app Waze has crossed the threshold for classification as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), triggering tougher obligations to tackle illegal online content.
According to a Google filing dated February 14, Waze registered 50.5 million average monthly users in the EU from July to December 2024.
Under the DSA, any online platform with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU is subject to enhanced regulatory requirements, which include stricter measures for content moderation and greater transparency. European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier confirmed via email, “We are aware that Waze has published user numbers above the DSA threshold for designation as a Very Large Online Platform.”
In contrast, three major adult content platforms, which were previously designated as VLOPs in December 2023, reported a significant drop in users during the latter half of last year. One platform that offers adult content reported that it had an average of 26.6 million monthly users in the EU as of January 1st. Other platforms also reported similar figures as of August 1st, 2024. Regnier noted that an undesignation is possible under the DSA if a platform’s user numbers fall below the threshold, although general obligations under the law would still apply.
The European Commission is expected to finalize its decision on VLOP designations within approximately two months after verifying the reported user figures. Companies found to be in breach of the DSA rules may face fines of up to 6% of their annual global revenue.
The differing designations reflect the evolving digital landscape, as platforms like Waze must now bolster their efforts against illegal content while others, such as the adult content sites, may benefit from lighter regulatory oversight.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
From Sunday, all non-EU citizens, including British visitors, will face new biometric checks when entering and exiting the European Union under its long-delayed Entry/Exit System (EES).
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University, Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne, and Omar Yaghi of the University of California.
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their groundbreaking discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in electric circuits.
United States chipmaker AMD will supply artificial intelligence chips to OpenAI in a multi-year agreement that could generate tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and give the ChatGPT maker the option to acquire up to 10% of the company.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 has been awarded jointly to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their ground breaking discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance.
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