ChatGPT just became the first AI chatbot ordered to meet Europe’s toughest digital safety standards.
European Union regulators designated the OpenAI product a “very large” online service Monday, pushing it into a compliance category originally built for social media giants and search engines. Reddit and Roblox received the same label.
All three platforms reported monthly EU user counts above 45 million, the legal threshold for heightened oversight under the Digital Services Act. ChatGPT alone counted 159 million monthly users across the bloc by late March. That figure represents more than one third of the EU population.
The designation gives each company four months to implement additional safeguards. Those include assessing and reducing risks tied to illegal content, harm to minors, user mental and physical wellbeing, fundamental rights, election integrity, and public security.
To fit ChatGPT into the DSA framework, Brussels classified the chatbot as a search engine. Roblox reported 46.6 million active EU players, barely clearing the threshold. Reddit disclosed more than 57 million EU users.
“ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said.
ChatGPT said it was preparing for the new compliance workload. Roblox called itself “proud to be the first gaming platform” on the list. Safety sits at the foundation of everything the company does, said Joost Hagesteijn, Roblox’s European general manager.
Roughly 30 services now carry DSA obligations. Most belong to American tech corporations including Google, Apple, Microsoft, TikTok, X, Amazon, and Shein. Several pornography sites and Wikipedia also appear on the list.
The move arrives as Brussels intensifies enforcement against global platforms despite Washington’s threats of retaliation. Violators risk fines up to 6 percent of annual worldwide revenue. Repeat offenders could face a European operating ban.
X already paid a 120 million euro penalty for transparency failures. TikTok recently received orders to redesign its supposedly addictive interface or confront major fines.
Lena-Maria Boswald of German think tank Interface said the ChatGPT precedent would shape regulatory expectations for every large generative AI system operating in Europe. The EU’s separate AI Act, effective since 2024, phases in broader artificial intelligence rules over several years.
