During major political events, social media platforms encounter increased systemic risks. However, it is still unclear if and how they adjust their moderation practices in response. The Digital Services Act Transparency Database provides-for the first time-an opportunity to systematically examine content moderation at scale, allowing researchers and policymakers to evaluate platforms' compliance and effectiveness, especially at high-stakes times. Here we analyze 1.58 billion self-reported moderation actions by the eight largest social media platforms in Europe over an eight-month period surrounding the 2024 European Parliament elections. We found that platforms did not exhibit meaningful signs of adaptation in moderation strategies as their self-reported enforcement patterns did not change significantly around the elections. This raises questions about whether platforms made any concrete adjustments, or whether the structure of the database may have masked them. On top of that, we reveal that initial concerns regarding platforms' transparency and accountability still persist one year after the launch of the Transparency Database. Our findings highlight the limits of current self-regulatory approaches and point to the need for stronger enforcement and better data access mechanisms to ensure that online platforms meet their responsibilities in protecting the democratic processes.

翻译：在重大政治事件期间，社交媒体平台面临系统性风险加剧的挑战。然而，它们是否以及如何调整审核实践应对此类风险仍不明确。《数字服务法》透明度数据库首次为系统性地大规模审查内容审核提供了契机，使研究人员和政策制定者能够评估平台的合规性与有效性，尤其是在高风险时期。本研究分析了2024年欧洲议会选举前后八个月内，欧洲八大社交媒体平台自我报告的15.8亿次审核行动。我们发现，平台在审核策略上并未表现出有意义的适应性调整迹象——其自我报告的执法模式在选举前后未发生显著变化。这引发了两方面质疑：平台是否确实采取了实质性调整？抑或数据库的结构性缺陷可能掩盖了这些调整？此外，本文揭示透明度数据库上线一年后，公众对平台透明度与问责制的初始担忧依然存在。我们的研究结果凸显了当前自我监管方法的局限性，并指出需要加强执法力度并完善数据访问机制，以确保在线平台履行其保护民主进程的责任。