The European Commission has decided ChatGPT counts as a search engine, while Reddit and Roblox count as platforms, all under its toughest online rulebook.
On Sunday, the Commission formally designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine and both Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms under the Digital Services Act. All three reported at least 45 million average monthly users in the EU, the threshold that triggers the label. The Commission calls ChatGPT a "hybrid service," an AI system that answers prompts and also searches the web, which is how it clears the DSA's own definition of a search engine. Reddit and Roblox were classified as platforms instead, because both let users publish and spread content to other users: Reddit through topic-based discussion communities, Roblox through user-built games.
The designation is not symbolic. It hands Brussels new investigative power and gives all three companies until Dec. 31 to start assessing and mitigating risks around illegal content, harm to minors, users' mental and physical wellbeing, elections, and public security, the same regime that is already testing whether Meta does enough to protect minors on Instagram and Facebook. Ireland's Coimisiun na Mean will oversee ChatGPT and Reddit, while the Netherlands' Authority for Consumers and Markets takes Roblox, splitting oversight of a chatbot, a forum, and a gaming platform across two different regulators.
That brings the DSA's very-large list to 28 services. It is also a sign the law's next big test is not another social network: it is chatbots that never signed up to be called search engines.