OpenAI didn’t tell authorities when it banned a mass shooting suspect’s ChatGPT account. Roblox is facing multiple lawsuits over child safety failures. Now, both platforms are reportedly headed toward the European Union’s strictest regulatory category. That’s not a coincidence. It’s the DSA working more or less as intended.
According to Engadget, the EU is preparing to designate Roblox as a “very large online platform” and ChatGPT as a “very large search engine” this August. The labels come from the Digital Services Act, which applies to any platform or search engine with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. It’s a threshold both services have clearly crossed, which means both will now sit alongside Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, X, Bing, and several Google properties on the EU’s VLOP and VLOSE lists.
Being on that list comes with real obligations. Within four months of receiving the designation, platforms must set up contact points for users and regulators, publish readable terms and conditions, and be transparent about how they handle advertising, content moderation, and recommendation systems. They also have to report criminal activity to authorities. That last point is pointed, given OpenAI’s recent controversy around the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting case in 2025, where the company failed to notify law enforcement when it banned the suspect’s account. OpenAI has since said it will report credible threats going forward. Whether that commitment holds up under regulatory pressure is a different question.
The requirements don’t stop there. Designated platforms must carry out risk assessments covering illegal content, electoral interference, gender-based violence, threats to press freedom, discrimination, and freedom of expression. Then they have to actually act on what those assessments find. Annual audits are mandatory, and the European Commission gets access to platform data. Vetted researchers get access too, which matters for independent accountability. Internal compliance processes are required, not optional.
For Roblox, the scrutiny feels overdue. The platform has a documented child safety problem. Multiple lawsuits from authorities and families accuse the company of failing to protect minors from predatory adult users. Roblox has resisted taking full responsibility for what happens on its platform, and the VLOP designation will make that position much harder to maintain.
For OpenAI and ChatGPT, the “very large search engine” label is notable in itself. It signals that EU regulators view ChatGPT not just as a chatbot, but as an information gateway with real influence over what people know and believe. That framing brings its own set of obligations around transparency, accuracy, and the risks of misinformation at scale. OpenAI is also facing wrongful death lawsuits from families who say the platform lacked basic safeguards for users showing signs of suicidal behavior.
Both companies will need to communicate changes to EU users in the coming months if the designations go through as expected. But the bigger question is whether compliance will be genuine or performative. The DSA has teeth, but enforcement depends on regulators actually using them. The EU has shown it’s willing to go after large platforms. So the pressure is real. Whether it’s enough to change how these companies actually operate is something users in Europe, and everywhere else, will be watching closely.