‘Deceives users’: Elon Musk’s X found in breach of EU online content rules
Al Jazeera
The company could be fined up to 6 percent of its total worldwide annual turnover if the findings are later confirmed.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X is in breach of the European Union’s online content law, according to preliminary findings by regulators that could lead to hefty fines for the company.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-member bloc, announced on Friday that the controversial social media platform is violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to “dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers”.
The investigation, which opened in December 2023, arrived at its preliminary findings by analysing internal company documents and interviewing experts. The DSA requires large online platforms and search engines to do more to tackle illegal content and risks to public security.
It found that X, formerly Twitter, uses its so-called “blue checkmark” in a way that does not correspond to industry practices and “deceives users”.
“Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a ‘verified’ status, it negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with. There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the ‘verified account’ to deceive users,” the commission said.
