Apple, TikTok, Twitter and other applications, subject to stricter rules in the European Union

giants like it TikTok, Twitter, Apple Store and Amazonamong others, it announced Friday data on users in the European Union (EU) forcing them to submit to new Internet surveillance blockade regulations.

All these platforms have announced a number of users in the EU of more than 45 million, which is why they must henceforth be governed by the strict measures foreseen by the Digital Services Act (LSD), entered into force in November.

The research units for Google, Google Maps, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram.

According to LSD regulations, platforms with more than 45 million users must undergo annual audits and explain the measures taken to prevent illegal content online.

The European Commission (executive arm of the EU) can also order them to disclose and explain their algorithms or databases, something these platforms generally keep under wraps.

Possible fines for any “very large online platform” (VLOP) or “very large online search engine” (VLOSE) that violates the regulations they can be up to 6% of your global annual revenue.

Platforms below the 45 million user threshold also have obligations, albeit less stringent and appropriate to their size and reach.

TikTok, which is also regulated

Not all of the affected platforms are American: Chinese-owned TikTok announced on Friday that it had 125 million monthly active users in the EU.

Some of those web giants reacted irritably to the introduction of the new rules and several limited themselves to indicating whether they were above the defined threshold, but without any precision. The business involved in these regulations is too big.

Such was the case with Amazon and the Apple Store’s iOS application store, which contented themselves with pointing out that the users of their services exceeded the the 45 million.

Swedish music streaming site Spotify and UK’s OnlyFans, which stream content from prostitutes, among others, reported under 45 million users.

So did the app American dating tinder.

“We note with some concern that some platforms have only published an estimate of being below the threshold. This is not enough,” warned commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke.

“The rules are clear. A number is a number. We call on those platforms which have not yet proceeded to publish the numbers without delay“, He added.

LSD – which is accompanied by another law, Digital Markets (LMD) – has introduced tough rules for giant digital companies to better protect EU consumers.

Its goal is to crack down on illegal content online, combat the online sale of unsafe products, better protect minors and increase transparency on Internet services.

Also Control user data usage.