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Inferring DSA non-compliance from low SoR submission volumes

Determine whether low volumes of Statements of Reasons (SoRs) submitted by Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) to the European Commission’s Digital Services Act (DSA) Transparency Database constitute non-compliance with Article 24(5) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, which obliges timely submission of anonymized SoRs for all content moderation decisions.

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Background

The paper observes substantial differences in the quantity of SoRs submitted by different VLOPs, with some platforms contributing disproportionately large shares and others very few. Because Article 24(5) requires platforms to submit SoRs without undue delay for each content moderation decision, the volume of submissions could be indicative of compliance or non-compliance.

However, the authors explicitly note that it is currently not possible to directly infer non-compliance solely from low submission counts, highlighting an unresolved compliance assessment question tied to submission volume thresholds.

References

However, it is difficult to estimate whether a low number of SoRs pushed in the Database can immediately translate to non-compliance.

— Automated Transparency: A Legal and Empirical Analysis of the Digital Services Act Transparency Database (2404.02894 - Kaushal et al., 3 Apr 2024) in Compliance observations, Section 5.1 (Who is Reporting: VLOPs)