EU DSA · The Monitor · July 2026 · Edition 01
The EU Social Media Monitor
Every six months, the EU’s largest platforms must file how many people use them and how they police them — in scattered PDFs and dashboards nobody reads together. The Monitor reads them together: one snapshot of EU reach, the change since each platform’s last filing, and every enforcement move the Commission has made, each number linked to its source.
This edition reflects the latest available DSA reach filings (H2 2025 for most platforms) and European Commission enforcement through 10 July 2026.
Combined reach sums each service’s own filed figure — it is total reported reach across the designated services, not a count of unique people (many use several platforms, and Google & YouTube file signed-in accounts, not AMAR).
Art. 24(2) · Reach
Who reaches the EU — and how it moved
Every platform must publish its average monthly active recipients in the EU. Here they all are in one table, largest first, with the change since each one’s previous filing.
EU reach, and the change since each platform’s last filing
Average monthly active recipients in the EU (AMAR), as each platform files it
| Platform | Reported EU reach | Change vs. prior filing | Latest period |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 479.4M | n/a | H2 2025 |
| 368.3M | n/a | H2 2025 | |
| 288.7M | +2% | H2 2025 | |
| 262.5M | −0.4% | H2 2025 | |
| TikTok | 178.3M | +5% | H2 2025 |
| X | 102M | +8% | Oct 2025 |
| Snapchat | 94.8M | +1% | H1 2025 |
| 55.2M | +0.9% | H2 2025 |
Google & YouTube file signed-in accounts, not AMAR — not comparable to the others.
Sources: TikTok (1 Jul–31 Dec 2025) · Meta (1 Jul–31 Dec 2025, publ. 27 Feb 2026) · Google (1 Jul–31 Dec 2025) · X (October 2025) · Snapchat (1 Jan–30 Jun 2025, publ. 29 Aug 2025) · LinkedIn (1 Jul–31 Dec 2025, publ. 26 Feb 2026) · Not directly comparable across periods — providers revise how they count these figures over time.
Biggest reported rise
X +8%
94.8M → 102M vs. its previous filing.
Biggest reported fall
Facebook −0.4%
263.6M → 262.5M vs. its previous filing.
Enforcement
What the Commission did next
The DSA has teeth: fines, preliminary findings and new proceedings. These are the latest moves against the platforms we track — the full case-by-case timelines live on the Enforcement Tracker.
- €320M
- Fines to date
- 2
- Non-compliance fines
- 11
- Open proceedings
- 8
- Platforms under investigation
Meta (Facebook & Instagram) — Preliminary finding — addictive design
Meta preliminarily in breach over the addictive design of Facebook & Instagram (infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, engagement-driven recommenders): it did not adequately assess the risks to users’ physical and mental well-being, including minors and vulnerable adults. The Commission wants default changes such as disabling infinite scroll and autoplay.
July 10, 2026 · Source
Temu — €200M fine
Non-compliance decision and fine for the Art. 34 illegal-products risk-assessment breach — the largest DSA fine so far. Other strands remain under investigation.
May 28, 2026 · Source
Meta (Facebook & Instagram) — Preliminary findings — under-13s
Meta preliminarily in breach for failing to prevent under-13s from accessing the services: false birth dates accepted with no effective controls, and an ineffective reporting tool for minors’ accounts.
April 29, 2026 · Source
Pornhub, Stripchat, XVideos & XNXX — Preliminary findings
All four preliminarily in breach — deficient (business-centric) risk assessment and reliance on a single self-declaration click; blurring and content warnings deemed ineffective.
March 26, 2026 · Source
Snapchat — Formal proceedings opened
On age assurance, default minor-account settings and content moderation — opened the same day as the adult-platform preliminary findings, jointly with the Dutch DSC.
March 26, 2026 · Source
Shein — Formal proceedings opened
On illegal products (incl. potential CSAM), addictive design and recommender-system transparency incl. a non-profiling option.
February 17, 2026 · Source
X — X appeals to the EU General Court
X challenged the €120M decision (X v Commission) — the first court challenge to a DSA fine. The 90-working-day remedy deadline for the ad repository and data access passed without a public outcome.
February 16, 2026 · Source
TikTok — Preliminary finding — addictive design
TikTok preliminarily in breach over addictive design (infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications); the Commission says it must change the basic design, e.g. disable infinite scroll over time.
February 6, 2026 · Source
X — New proceeding opened + 2023 case extended
A new investigation into Grok’s deployment risks, and an extension of the December 2023 proceeding to X’s recommender systems (incl. the planned switch to a Grok-based recommender).
January 26, 2026 · Source
+2 more moves in the full timeline.
Every case, step by stepCadence
The filing scorecard
Where each platform sits in the reporting cycle — the period its latest figure covers, when it filed, and SMT’s standing assessment of how transparent that platform is.
| Platform | Latest period | Filed | SMT status |
|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 1 Jul–31 Dec 2025 | — | Very Good |
| 1 Jul–31 Dec 2025 | 27 Feb 2026 | Very Good | |
| 1 Jul–31 Dec 2025 | 27 Feb 2026 | Very Good | |
| YouTube | 1 Jul–31 Dec 2025 | — | Bad |
| 1 Jul–31 Dec 2025 | — | Bad | |
| X | October 2025 | — | Very Bad |
| Snapchat | 1 Jan–30 Jun 2025 | 29 Aug 2025 | Good |
| 1 Jul–31 Dec 2025 | 26 Feb 2026 | Good |
How the Monitor is built
- Every figure on this page is aggregated from primary filings SMT already tracks — nothing is estimated. Reach figures are each platform’s own “average monthly active recipients (AMAR) in the EU” under DSA Art. 24(2), taken from its latest DSA transparency filing; Google and YouTube instead file signed-in accounts and state these cannot be compared across providers.
- The reported change compares each platform to its own previous filing, not to a fixed calendar period — the eight platforms file on different cadences. Providers also revise how they count these figures over time, so a change can reflect a methodology restatement rather than a real rise or fall.
- Combined reach sums each service’s filed figure. It is not a count of unique people — many people use several platforms, and the metrics differ — so read it as total reported reach across the designated services, not population.
- Enforcement moves are drawn from the SMT DSA Enforcement Tracker, itself sourced to European Commission press releases. Preliminary findings are not final decisions.
Cite this edition
Quoting a figure? Attribute it to:
Social Media Transparency, “The EU Social Media Monitor — July 2026 · Edition 01,” socialmediatransparency.org/monitor.
Every figure resolves to a primary source on this page — link the underlying filing or Commission release directly.
Go deeper than the snapshot
The Monitor is the overview. Every platform has a full compliance page, and every EU country its own reach and reports.