BRUSSELS—A civil society organization active in the European Union (EU) and abroad has released a report alleging that the three largest pornography platforms operating within the multinational bloc's digital space are falling short in meeting Digital Services Act compliance for so-called very large online platforms (VLOPs).
The Digital Intimacy Coalition (DIC) completed the study in April 2026, but did not announce the results and findings of the report until July 6. Platforms studied by DIC were the Aylo-owned Pornhub.com, Technius-owned Stripchat.com, and WebGroup Czech Republic-owned XVideos.com.
All three platforms are classified by the European Commission as VLOPs under the bloc's expansive Digital Services Act (DSA). The act grants the European Commission the power to classify any adult entertainment platform and major social network as a VLOP subject to higher standards of scrutiny concerning online safety from Brussels.
VLOPs are traditionally defined as web platforms with more than 45 million users across the 27 EU member states, AVN previously reported.
Despite these websites arguing that they have fewer than 45 million users in the European Union, the enforcement arm of the commission classified platforms like Stripchat and Pornhub as VLOPs. One of the criticisms of VLOPs is that the definition of such a platform is flawed. Under the DSA and VLOP criteria, there are key factors that platforms must meet annually.
The Digital Intimacy Coalition claims to have identified how the three platforms are not meeting their "legal obligations to meaningully assess platform risk," per the coalition report.
DIC called this report "the first in-depth independent analysis of the legally mandated risk assessments ... examined through a sex-positive lens that treats gender-based violence and the over-moderation of consensual content as equally serious violations of fundamental rights."
"Zero platforms recognise sexual autonomy as a fundamental right. Not one platform's methodology was found to be documented or reproducible," DIC added. Carlotta Rigotti, DIC's Risk Assessment Analysis Taskforce head, explained, "These risk assessments were supposed to be a transparency tool. Instead, they read like reputation management.
"Severity ratings are unsubstantiated, AI-generated content is ignored entirely, and not one platform grapples with the real tension at the heart of this industry: how to protect against gender-based violence without erasing the right to sexual autonomy," Rigotti continued.
Ana Ornelas, the coalition's advocacy officer, added, "What is missing from these assessments is just as telling as what is in them.
"We do not have data on moderator welfare, disclosure of civil society partnerships, or engagement with platform architecture or recommender systems, despite that being an explicit legal requirement. Regulators and the public deserve better than this," Ornelas said. The analysis also identifies four structural weaknesses common across the three platforms, as is the case for the legal requirement for reporting risk assessments for online users. The analysis found that risk assessment methodologies are "opaque" and "non-reproducible."
Platforms utilize a narrow definition of gender-based violence, noting that the sites only heavily police non-consensual image sharing. The platforms are also "shaped by reputational concerns rather than user safety." And "mitigation measures" are often lacking, and their effectiveness claims are ultimately unsubstantiated.
AVN received no comment from the platforms responding to specific claims made in the Digital Intimacy Coalition's report. According to a spokesperson for Aylo, the company's next risk assessment, which was completed in April, will be published later in July. That report "covers many of the areas addressed in the analysis," the spokesperson noted.
