EU Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) Transparency Report - Yahoo International Limited

Introduction

Yahoo is committed to putting users first. We know that our users place their trust in us, and we want to promote a positive and safe online environment for all. The EU Digital Services Act (“DSA”), which took effect on 25 August 2023, embodies these principles with a uniform set of rules governing the transparency and accountability of online service providers across the twenty-seven EU Member States.

This report is published by Yahoo International Limited (“Yahoo”) in accordance with the transparency reporting requirements set out in Article 15 of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) (“DSA”) and the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2835. It is limited to Yahoo services that are in scope of the DSA as intermediary services and does not include any other Yahoo products or services that are outside the scope of the DSA.

As required by the DSA we are publishing the following report identification information, and reporting categories, for the period from 17 February 2025 to 31 December 2025 (“Relevant Reporting Period”). Please note that as of 2 January 2026, the AOL business, which was part of the Yahoo group, including AOL News, AOL Mail, and AOL Search, was acquired by a third party, Bending Spoons S.p.A. As the Relevant Reporting Period precedes the transfer of ownership, this report includes information required under the DSA for those services.

User comments on Yahoo news sites:
User Comments: Reporting Information
User Comments: Categories of Content

Yahoo mail services:
Mail: Reporting Information
Mail: Categories of Content

Yahoo Search services:
Search: Reporting Information
Search: Categories of Content

Reports covering prior periods are accessible via the links at the bottom of this page.

Serving as a trusted guide for users around the globe is at the heart of Yahoo's mission. For more than 15 years, we have played a significant role in pioneering online user transparency and we have a long history of advocating for the protection of human rights online (including the freedom of expression and the right to privacy). We publish regular global, transparency reports on the government requests we receive for content moderation and user data. To find out more about how we are putting our commitments to user transparency and online safety into action, see here.

User comments on Yahoo news sites

Yahoo provides its vibrant and diverse community of users with a forum for sharing their views on the important global and local news of the day. On some of our news sites, we allow readers to post reactions and comments on articles when they are logged in to their account.

Facilitating open dialogue is a responsibility that we take seriously. We may, at any time and for any reason, choose to close or disable user commenting functions for certain articles or on any of our sites.

Where we allow comments, we respect our users’ freedom to express their opinions whilst ensuring we balance freedom of expression with the need to keep our sites safe, respectful, and free from discrimination. Before a user accesses our comments feature, we make them aware that anything they post is governed by the Yahoo Community Guidelines, and we remind them that Yahoo may remove their comment if it is in violation of those guidelines.

Orders from European Union Member States’ authorities

The following quantitative data relates to orders from EU Member State authorities in relation to user comments during the Relevant Reporting Period.

User Comments: Member States’ Orders

Notices to address prohibited user comments

Our Community Guidelines are the basis for any decision to remove user comments that may be illegal or inappropriate. We moderate comments using a combination of automated tools and human review. Users of our news sites can flag for our attention any comment they believe is objectionable by clicking on the “Report” feature within our user comments. Users can then select from a list of categories for reporting that comment.

The following quantitative data concerns notices submitted to Yahoo regarding user comments on our news sites during the Relevant Reporting Period, categorised by action taken pursuant to the notices, the number of notices processed by automated means, and median time for taking action.

User Comments: Notices

Content moderation of user comments on our own initiative, and information about automated means used for content moderation activities

The following quantitative data relates to the number and type of Yahoo's own initiative content moderation measures that affect the availability and visibility of user comments, and users' ability to provide user comments.

User Comments: Own Initiative Content Moderation - Illegal
User Comments: Own Initiative Content Moderation - Terms and Conditions

The following quantitative data relates to content moderation on our own initiative using measures that are taken solely by the use of automated means and measures not solely taken by automated means, and data relating to the accuracy of each.

User Comments: Automated Means

The following qualitative data relates to content moderation on our own initiative concerning user comments.

User Comments: Qualitative Information

Number of complaints received through the internal complaint handling systems

User Comments: Complaints

Yahoo mail services

Orders from European Union Member States’ authorities

We may receive requests from EU Member States’ law enforcement, judicial and other authorities to take action against one or more items of illegal content involving our mail services and/or one or more illegal actions involving a mail account.

For all orders received from EU Member States as described above, we carefully scrutinise each request to make sure it complies with all applicable legal requirements, and we ensure that any disclosure of data is consistent with our Global Principles for Responding to Government Requests and is limited only to data that is necessary to comply with the request.

The following quantitative data relates to orders from EU Member State authorities in relation to Yahoo mail services during the Relevant Reporting Period. Yahoo mail services include both Yahoo and AOL email.1

Mail: Member States' Orders

How we protect Yahoo mail accounts from misuse in the European Union

Maintaining the safety and security of our mail systems is of paramount importance to us and we provide a number of ways that users can alert us if a mail account has been misused or compromised in any way. Our help pages provide users with instructions on how to report abuse and harassment from a Yahoo mail account, and how users can recognise if their own account has been compromised. We provide our users with steps to take to protect an account against fraudulent use and to secure an account that has been compromised. We also take steps to identify mail accounts that are being used for fraudulent purposes or for other purposes in violation of applicable laws and/or our Terms of Service, and take action as appropriate in accordance with our Terms of Service.

The above measures do not involve Yahoo engaging in content moderation on its own initiative within the meaning of the Digital Services Act.

As such we have no quantitative data regarding content moderation of mail services on our own initiative.

Mail: Own Initiative Content Moderation - Illegal
Mail: Own Initiative Content Moderation - Terms and Conditions

Number of complaints received through the internal complaint handling systems

The following quantitative data relates to complaints we received regarding closures of mail accounts in the EU during the Relevant Reporting Period.

Mail: Complaints

Yahoo Search services

Note about our Microsoft partnership

Our general search service (the main results that are displayed under the Yahoo Search Box) is a downstream search service powered by Microsoft’s search engine Bing. Bing exclusively provides the algorithmic search results (web, image, and video results) and paid search results that are displayed on Yahoo’s general search results pages. Microsoft has direct control over the Bing search index, ranking algorithms associated with it, and the results provided to Yahoo in response to user search requests. Results are delivered to Yahoo through Microsoft’s API tool, embedded within the Yahoo search interfaces.

Information in this report about our general search results reflects the nature of this relationship. References in this report to “Yahoo Search” also include Yahoo’s AOL-branded search sites. 2

Active monthly users in the EU

The DSA requires us to report the number of active monthly users of Yahoo Search in the European Union every six months. We publish those numbers here.

Orders from European Union Member States’ authorities

We sometimes receive orders from EU Member State law enforcement, judicial and other authorities to remove content from Yahoo’s general search results pages that is deemed to be illegal. We forward these orders to Microsoft for consideration and action, which may include Microsoft delisting the relevant URL from the main Bing search index. The result of this action then flows down to the Yahoo general search results as part of the downstream search service. For example, if Microsoft decides to delist the URL from the Bing index, after a short period, it should not be delivered by Bing to Yahoo and should stop appearing on the Yahoo general search results page.

The following quantitative information relates to these orders for the Relevant Reporting Period.

Search: Member States' Orders

Search results content moderation

As stated above, Microsoft’s Bing search engine is the exclusive provider of algorithmic and paid search results that are displayed on Yahoo’s general search results pages, with direct control over the results provided to Yahoo in response to search requests, based on the Bing search index and ranking algorithms.

Microsoft performs the content moderation that relates to Microsoft’s Bing search engine, index and ranking algorithms. The result of such moderation flows down to the Yahoo general search results as part of the downstream search service.3

Content moderation of search content on our own initiative, and information about automated means used for content moderation activities

In addition to content moderation performed upstream by Microsoft, where required by EU privacy laws, we respond to requests from individuals where it can be determined that search results contain information that are inaccurate, no longer relevant, inadequate, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which the individual’s personal data was collected or processed. While Yahoo does not have the ability to delist URLs from Bing’s search index, we may block the links from appearing on Yahoo general search results pages in the EEA in response to a search for an individual’s name.

The following quantitative data relates to the above described search content moderation for the Relevant Reporting Period.

Search: Own Initiative Content Moderation - Illegal
Search: Own Initiative Content Moderation - Terms and Conditions

The above described measures are not taken by the use of automated means. As such, the following table does not report any data in this category.

Search: Automated Means

The following qualitative data relates to content moderation of search content on our own initiative.

Search: Qualitative Information

Complaints received through the internal complaint handling systems

The following quantitative data relates to complaints regarding search content moderation decisions by Yahoo during the Relevant Reporting Period.

Search: Complaints

CSV format for transparency report data

As required by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2835, we are providing our report data in machine-readable CSV (comma-separated values) format below.

User comments on Yahoo news sites:
DSA Transparency Report | User Comments: 17 February 2025 – 31 December 2025

Yahoo mail services:
DSA Transparency Report | Mail: 17 February 2025 – 31 December 2025

Yahoo Search services:
DSA Transparency Report | Search: 17 February 2025 – 31 December 2025

You can find Yahoo’s previous DSA reports here:
DSA Transparency Report: 1 January 2024 - 16 February 2025

1 As of 2 January 2026, Yahoo no longer is owner of AOL Mail.

2 As of 2 January 2026, Yahoo no longer is owner of AOL Search.

3 In a small number of specific cases, and where warranted, Yahoo performs the following activities to further protect users:

Safesearch: This is a feature in Yahoo’s user settings for general search results, which sends a signal to Microsoft to filter out adult content from the general search results Microsoft delivers to Yahoo. For users identified as under age 18, all types (e.g., weblinks, images and videos) of adult content are filtered out, regardless of the user’s intended search query, and this setting cannot be overridden by the user. 13

Search Assist: Yahoo has an autocomplete function called Search Assist which, in response to commonly used search terms typed into the Yahoo Search Box, displays a list of suggested phrases the user may select from in order to “autocomplete” their search query. 14 Where we identify a suggested search query as violating Yahoo’s Search Autocomplete Policy (which prohibits queries involving, among other things, suicide and self-harm and child exploitation), we take action to prevent the suggested query from appearing in the list of suggested phrases to “autocomplete” the user’s query. 15 Note that this action neither prevents a user from completing their desired query nor alters any search results that are delivered in response to the query.

Direct Displays: Yahoo displays banner warning safety information for a user when its tools identify that the user has searched for certain dangerous content, such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or websites that promote self-harm or suicide. 16 The banner displays are not tied to individual search results and sit at the top of the page as factual and informative material for our users.