  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.
