Trading nuance for scale? Platform observability and content governance under the DSA

The Digital Services Act (DSA) marks a paradigmatic shift in platform governance, introducing mechanisms like the Statement of Reasons (SoRs) database to foster transparency and observability of platforms’ content moderation practices. This study investigates the DSA Transparency Database as a regulatory mechanism for enabling observability, focusing on the automation and territorial application of content moderation across the EU/EEA. By analysing 439 million SoRs from eight Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), we find that the vast majority of content moderation decisions are enforced automatically and uniformly across the EU/EEA. We also identify significant discrepancies in content moderation strategies across VLOPs, with TikTok, YouTube and X exhibiting the most distinct practices, which are further analysed in the paper. Our findings reveal a strong correlation between automation and the speed of content moderation, automation and the territorial scope of decisions. We also highlight several limitations of the database, notably the lack of language-specific data and inconsistencies in how SoRs are reported by VLOPs. We conclude that despite such shortcomings, the DSA and its Transparency Database may enable a wider constellation of stakeholders to participate in platform governance, paving the way for more meaningful platform observability.