The European Commission recently introduced new regulation to harmonize transparency reporting of large online platforms under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Here, we present the first systematic evaluation of transparency reporting data quality after this normative change, for the eight largest social media platforms in the European Union. In detail, we run a set of large-scale quantitative analyses on key reporting dimensions, followed by a structured comparative assessment across platforms and reporting mechanisms. Among our findings is that: (i) the analyzed platforms had varying degrees of compliance and data quality, but all exhibited issues on data formatting, timeliness, consistency, and completeness; (ii) some platforms employed differing reporting procedures across mechanisms, which caused them to submit contrasting information; (iii) despite the harmonization, a number of issues still prevent interoperability between reporting mechanisms; and (iv) many of the previously identified issues with transparency reporting are still unresolved. We conclude by discussing implications for transparency auditing and proposing key targeted improvements to strengthen the reliability and interoperability of DSA transparency reporting.

翻译：欧盟委员会近期依据《数字服务法案》（DSA）引入新规，旨在协调大型在线平台的透明度报告工作。本研究首次系统评估了这一规范变革后欧盟八大社交媒体平台的透明度报告数据质量。具体而言，我们对关键报告维度开展大规模定量分析，并基于结构化方法对跨平台、跨机制的报告信息进行对比评估。主要发现包括：（i）各分析平台在合规性与数据质量方面存在差异，但均存在数据格式化、时效性、一致性与完整性方面的问题；（ii）部分平台在不同机制中采用差异化的报告流程，导致提交信息相互矛盾；（iii）尽管实施了协调化措施，若干问题仍阻碍报告机制间的互操作性；（iv）此前已识别的透明度报告问题多数尚未解决。最后，我们讨论了透明度审计的启示，并提出关键性改进建议以强化DSA透明度报告的可靠性与互操作性。