The Digital Services Act (DSA) requires large social media platforms in the EU to provide clear and specific information whenever they remove or restrict access to certain content. These "Statements of Reasons" (SoRs) are collected in the DSA Transparency Database to ensure transparency and scrutiny of content moderation decisions of the providers of online platforms. In this work, we empirically analyze 156 million SoRs within an observation period of two months to provide an early look at content moderation decisions of social media platforms in the EU. Our empirical analysis yields the following main findings: (i) There are vast differences in the frequency of content moderation across platforms. For instance, TikTok performs more than 350 times more content moderation decisions per user than X/Twitter. (ii) Content moderation is most commonly applied for text and videos, whereas images and other content formats undergo moderation less frequently. (ii) The primary reasons for moderation include content falling outside the platform's scope of service, illegal/harmful speech, and pornography/sexualized content, with moderation of misinformation being relatively uncommon. (iii) The majority of rule-breaking content is detected and decided upon via automated means rather than manual intervention. However, X/Twitter reports that it relies solely on non-automated methods. (iv) There is significant variation in the content moderation actions taken across platforms. Altogether, our study implies inconsistencies in how social media platforms implement their obligations under the DSA -- resulting in a fragmented outcome that the DSA is meant to avoid. Our findings have important implications for regulators to clarify existing guidelines or lay out more specific rules that ensure common standards on how social media providers handle rule-breaking content on their platforms.

翻译：《数字服务法案》（DSA）要求欧盟内的大型社交媒体平台在移除或限制访问特定内容时提供清晰且具体的信息。这些"理由陈述"（SoRs）被收录于DSA透明度数据库，以确保对在线平台提供者内容审核决策的透明度和监督。本研究对两个月观察期内的1.56亿条SoR进行了实证分析，旨在初步了解欧盟社交媒体平台的内容审核决策。实证分析得出以下主要发现：（i）各平台在内容审核频率上存在巨大差异。例如，TikTok每用户做出的内容审核决策次数是X/Twitter的350倍以上。（ii）内容审核最常见于文本和视频，而图像及其他内容格式接受审核的频率较低。（iii）审核的主要原因包括：内容超出平台服务范围、非法/有害言论、色情/性化内容，而误导信息的审核相对少见。（iv）大部分违规内容通过自动化手段而非人工干预被发现并判定。然而，X/Twitter报告称其仅依赖非自动化方法。（v）各平台采取的内容审核措施存在显著差异。总体而言，本研究表明社交媒体平台在履行DSA义务时存在不一致性——导致了DSA本意要避免的碎片化结果。我们的发现对监管机构具有重要启示，需进一步阐明现有指南或制定更具体的规则，以确保社交媒体提供者处理其平台上违规内容时遵循统一标准。