Overview

• On May 27 the European Commission opened formal proceedings into Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos under the Digital Services Act.
• The probe focuses on allegations that these platforms lack adequate measures to verify users’ ages and thereby expose minors to adult content.
• Stripchat was removed from the ‘very large online platform’ list after its average monthly users fell below the 45 million threshold, but the investigation will cover the period when it held that designation.
• The DSA empowers regulators to impose fines of up to 6% of a firm’s global turnover and to ban repeat offenders from operating in the EU.
• Separately, the EU is drafting guidelines for online child protection and developing a unified age-verification app to help platforms comply.