WhatsApp Channels to Fall Under EU Content Moderation Rules

WhatsApp’s Channels feature is the latest social media service to be hit with the European Union’s Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) content moderation rules.

Even though WhatsApp is primarily a messaging service, its Channels serve as social feeds for news organizations and celebrities to post publicly, akin to Twitter profiles or Discord channels. That, alongside passing the threshold of active users with 46.8 million monthly actives in Europe, makes it fair game for strict content moderation enforcement under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

It will also be required to conduct risk assessments and disclose user figures every six months.

If Meta, WhatsApp’s owner, fails to comply, it can be fined up to 6% of the company’s annual sales, Bloomberg reported. The social media giant already has to adhere to these rules for its other two major platforms, Facebook and Instagram, which were designated as VLOPs under the DSA from the outset.

Elon Musk’s X has been the only online platform to be fined by the EU under the DSA, which issued a €120 million fine to the microblogging site in December last year for a deceptive paid verification system that led to impersonation scams and online manipulation. X hit back by blocking the European Commission’s ad account, claiming it used an ad exploit in a recent post.

WhatsApp’s primary messaging service will not be forced to abide by these content moderation laws, meaning the end-to-end encrypted chats will remain hidden from the EU laws.

Big Tech is in the EU’s sights

The EU has been hot on the heels of US tech giants over the past two years, much to the chagrin of the Trump administration. A few hours before the WhatsApp Channels announcement, the European Commission opened an investigation under the DSA into Grok AI’s sexual deepfake images, a controversy that has led to Grok being banned in several countries and monitored by others, including the UK.

Alongside social media content moderation, the EU has also been slamming Apple, Google, and Meta for monopolistic app store and ad platform policies, as part of the Commission’s Digital Markets Act enforcement. It fined Apple €500 million in April 2025 for not allowing developers to link to other payment methods outside their own, and fined Meta €200 million in the same decision for its “pay or consent” advertising model. Both have made changes to avert more fines.

WhatsApp building out its platform

WhatsApp has been blurring the lines between a strict messaging platform and a more holistic social platform for a while now, with the introduction of Channels and Communities turning it into more of a multi-channel social platform with ways to communicate with all sorts of people.

On top of that, the messaging app is beefing up its multimedia services with member tags and stickers for group chats to better label each member. It has also recently upgraded its voice notes service to act more as a voicemail killer, by allowing users to send voice and video notes if the receiver doesn’t pick up.

Even though WhatsApp is Meta’s most popular mobile app, it makes far less revenue than both Facebook and Instagram. To that end, services like Channels and Communities could be new ways for it to generate revenue, which is one reason Meta is so keen to beef up the app’s ecosystem.

Also read: WhatsApp Web phishing links can hijack accounts in seconds, showing how quickly the app’s growing ecosystem can be abused.