News from Across the Sea #10:

Welcome to the first 2026 edition of our bimonthly newsletter on the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA). We hope you have had a wonderful start to the new year. February 17th marked two years since the DSA came into full force. The details of the European Commission's multimillion-euro fine against X were leaked. CELE traveled to the Netherlands to present an ongoing project. Several investigations into platform design are in progress.

The Details of the Multimillion-Euro Fine on X

In the latest edition, we discussed the 120 million euro fine that the European Commission imposed on X, the highly anticipated first non-compliance decision under the DSA. The details of the decision remained confidential until, in January, a group of legislators obtained the full text of the decision through a formal request and made it public. The document contains no major surprises regarding what had already been made publicwhich confirms suspicions that the accusations of censorship were unfounded. This, in turn, puts the European Commission in the awkward position of having to explain the reasons why it is not making most of its decisions public.

CELE at the DSA and Platform Regulation Conference

On February 16 and 17, the second edition of the DSA and Platform Regulation Conferencewas held at the University of Amsterdam. CELE was represented by its director, Agustina Del Campo, who presented a work in progress, written in co-authorship with Nicolás Zara and Ramiro Álvarez Ugarte, about the role of the state in the application and supervision of the European Union's Digital Services Act and its possible implications for freedom of expression. 

The Conference, a key regional forum in the field of platform regulation, is organized by the DSA Observatory of the Institute for Information Law (IViR) of the University of Amsterdam and brings together academics, regulators, and civil society specialists from across Europe and the rest of the world. The conference discussions were marked by the growing climate of tension between the United States government and its platforms with European institutions and the pressure that these private actors exert on the regulations that affect them, such as the DSA and the DMA. CELE had already participated in the first edition of this conference in 2024. The program can be consulted here.

More Trouble for X: the European Commission Investigates Grok

Earlier this year, the Grok chatbot on the X platform added image and video editing functionality. Since then, users began to abuse this feature asking the chatbot to edit photos of real women and even children so that they appeared in their underwear. The application readily complied, to the point that, within days, millions of such images flooded the platform (according to the Center for Countering Digital HateThere were approximately 3 million sexualized images, including some 23.000 of children). On January 25, the European Commission opened an investigation against X to determine whether the company complied with its obligations to assess and mitigate risks associated with the use of Grok, primarily regarding the dissemination of illegal content, negative effects related to gender-based violence, and serious negative consequences for people's physical and mental health (Articles 34.1.a and 34.1.d of the DSA). The The official press release explains that such risks would have materialized through digitally manipulated explicit sexual images and even content that could be considered child pornography. The Commission's response is one more of many undertaken by various national regulators, including some European ones like France. Furthermore, the Commission extended its long-standing investigation into X recommendation systems, which has been open since 2023.

More Investigations: Shein in the Spotlight

The Commission launched a formal investigation against Shein, suspecting that the company has violated the DSA in three aspects: the use of a highly addictive design for consumers, such as reward programs and gamification (Gamification) of the service; the lack of transparency in recommendation systems; and the sale of illegal products, including some that could constitute child abuse material, such as the child-like sex dolls already mentioned in a previous installment.

Last Chance for TikTok

The Chinese giant was preliminarily found responsible of violating the DSA in relation to its addictive design. The European Commission reached this conclusion after evaluating features of the service such as infinite scroll down , autoplay,push notificationsand its highly personalized recommendation system. It determined that the company had failed to meet its obligations to adequately analyze and mitigate the risks that these addictive features could pose to the physical and mental well-being of its users, including children and vulnerable adults. In the The official press release , the Commission argued that “by constantly rewarding users with new content, certain design features of TikTok encourage the need to keep browsing and activate ‘autopilot’ mode in users’ brains.” They noted that, according to research, this “can lead to compulsive behavior and reduce users’ self-control.” The Commission maintains that TikTok must change the basic design of its service, disabling features such as infinite scrolling, implementing screen breaks, including overnight breaks, and adapting its recommendation system. 

The platform will now have the opportunity to respond to the European Commission's preliminary findings. The company has already labeled the Commission's findings as “a categorically false and completely unfounded description” of the platform. Once the company submits its response, the Commission will be able to assess it and decide whether to issue a ruling of non-compliance, which could result in fines of up to 6% of the company’s total annual turnover.

The process is being closely watched by Meta, whose platforms Facebook and Instagramhave also been under investigationfor their addictive designsince May 2024. The two previous proceedings initiated against TikTok (#1and#2) ended with agreements in which the company agreed to comply with certain state demands to avoid financial sanctions.

WhatsApp Designation as a VLOP

At the end of January, the European Commission designated WhatsApp as a Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the DSA. This designation applies not to the entire application, but only to the "Channels" feature, which falls under the legal definition of an online platform. The designation came after confirmation that this feature reached the legal threshold of 45 million active users in the EU. Following this designation, this functionality of the platform will have to comply with the more stringent obligations of Section 5 of the DSA, including those related to assessing and reducing systemic risks arising from its design, operation, or use by third parties. This paper by Sarah Eskens analyzes the classification of WhatsApp channels and Telegram public groups and channels as online platforms under the DSA.

New Publication from CELE

In this new policy paper, our director, Agustina Del Campo, analyzed the data access regime for research under the Digital Services Act, considering its main challenges and practical implications for researchers in the Global South. This work is part of the data access agenda, in which CELE has been, for years , supporting the efforts of the European Union and other actors to regulate and implement this regime, which is still in its early stages.

The DSA in Court: Another Victory for Data Access

On February 17, a Berlin appeals court ruled that the German NGO Democracy Reporting International (DRI) has the right, under the DSA, to access public data on that platform. The decision came after X refused to provide DRI with the platform's public data related to the Hungarian parliamentary elections in April. The appeals court ruling overturned the lower court's decision, which had declared itself incompetent and had instructed DRI to litigate access to the data at the platform's headquarters in Ireland.

What Are We Reading?

Thank you so much for reading this far. Talk to you soon!

Until next time!