EU Hits X With €120M Fine Over Blue Check Practices

The European Union has recently imposed a €120 million fine on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in what is being described as the first major enforcement action under the Digital Services Act. 

In a post published earlier this month, the Commission explained that the penalty follows a two-year investigation into the platform’s redesign of its blue check verification system and the way it handled advertising transparency and data access for researchers.

The Commission went on to say that X violated multiple provisions of the Digital Services Act, which is in charge of governing large online platforms that operate in the EU. The officials remarked that the firm failed to meet transparency obligations that were put in place to protect users from manipulation and deception. 

The main issue is that X started selling blue checkmarks to subscribers rather than reserving them for actually verified identities.

As such, the blue checkmark system misleads users about the authenticity of accounts. This enabled bad actors to impersonate others and commit fraud, as X blurred the distinction between verified individuals and premium subscribers.

“On X, anyone can pay to obtain the ‘verified’ status without the company meaningfully verifying who is behind the account, making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with. This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” the announcement said.

X Prevented External Researchers From Accessing Ads Data

Furthermore, regulators have concluded that X restricted external researchers from accessing the platform’s data, thus limiting independent analysis of risks, such as misinformation and systemic manipulation.

Barriers like this go against the Digital Services Act’s objective of increasing transparency and accountability for large online platforms.

Commenting on the matter, the Executive VP for Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said that deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads, and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU.

“The DSA protects users. The DSA gives researchers the way to uncover potential threats. The DSA restores trust in the online environment. With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability,” she concluded.

Moving forward, X has 60 working days to inform the Commission of the specific measures it plans to take to bring to an end the infringement of Article 25 (1) DSA, related to the deceptive use of blue checkmarks. On top of that, it also has 90 working days to submit to the Commission an action plan setting out the necessary measures to address other infringements of two other articles of the DSA, relating to the advertising repository and to the access to public data for researchers.