Paid blue checks on social network X are misleading users and being abused by malicious actors, the European Union said today, threatening the Elon Musk-owned platform with millions of dollars in fines unless the company makes changes.
On Friday, European Commission officials said that allowing any account to pay for verification violates the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) because it “negatively impacts users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of accounts.” X now has the chance to respond to the findings. If Musk can’t reach a resolution with the EU, the company faces fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover.
The blue checks, which appear next to the account names of X Premium subscribers, have been the subject of controversy since Musk acquired the platform in 2022. “In the past, blue checks used to mean trusted sources of information. Now, with X, our preliminary view is that they mislead users and breach the DSA,” said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. saying In a statement, “X now has the right to defend itself, but if our opinion is confirmed, we will impose fines and demand significant changes.”
X did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
Before Musk took over Twitter, X, formerly known as Twitter, blue checkmarks were used to verify the identity of influential accounts, from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to celebrity Kim Kardashian. Approved by Twitter staff, the blue checkmarks were also common among working researchers and journalists, indicating they were reliable sources of information.
Supporters of that system argued that it helped users identify trustworthy voices, while limiting scammers and imposters. But Musk denounced the arrangement as elitist and “corrupt to the core.”The ability to buy a blue tick for $8 a month was, he said, an antidote to Twitter’s current “lords and peasants” structure. “Power to the people!” he said. awarewhile announcing the new subscriber model.
However, after a series of scandals (NBA star LeBron James was among high-profile figures targeted by impersonator accounts with blue checks paid for), X introduced a more complicated color-coded system that Musk described as “painful, but necessary.” Verified businesses can get golden checks, gray checks go to governments, and in April 2024, users were deemed “unverified.”influential“Their blue checks were returned to them free of charge.
Despite these changes, the EU said Friday that X’s verification system does not match industry practices. Officials also said X does not comply with local rules on advertising transparency and does not provide researchers with adequate access to its public data, using methods such as scraping. Fees for access to X’s API — enterprise packages start at $42,000 per month — either deter researchers from pursuing projects or force them to pay disproportionately high fees, the Commission said. “In our view, X does not comply with the DSA in key areas of transparency,” EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said. in a post on XHe added that this was the first time a company had been charged with “preliminary findings” under the Digital Services Act.
The reprimand to X is the latest in a series of measures issued by Brussels against big tech companies, at a time when European regulators are seizing on new rules designed to limit the market power of tech giants and improve the way they operate. The EU gave X no deadline to respond to its findings.
In the past month, Apple, Microsoft and Meta have been accused of breaching EU rules. Meta and Apple must settle their cases by March 2025 to avoid fines. Yesterday, Apple said it would make its Tap and Go wallet technology available to rivals, in its latest concession to demands from local regulators.