A photo shows the new Twitter logo on July 24, 2023, following Elon Musk’s announcement of a rebrand that replaces the iconic blue bird with the letter “X.” The European Union said the platform’s blue checkmarks deceive users and violate the Digital Services Act. File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/ UPI | License Photo
The European Commission told X on Friday that the social media platform’s verified accounts as well as its poor transparency in advertising and lack of access to data for research run afoul of the bloc’s rules for large online platforms.
The commission said X’s verified accounts, signified by blue checkmarks are deceptive to users as anyone can pay a fee to subscribe and obtain the verified status. Advertisement
It added that this “negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and content that they interact with” and evidence has shown “motivated malicious actors” abusing the verified account system to deceive X users.
Under previous ownership, the blue “verified” checkmarks identified noteworthy users such as celebrities, politicians and journalists to make clear to users that the identity of the account matched the person running it.
X introduced the paid service in November 2022, shortly after Elon Musk purchased the company that allowed users to pay $7.99 a month to have their account adorned with a blue checkmark in addition to access to expanded features such as longer posts. Advertisement
The service was suspended later that month, after users began purchasing verified status and impersonating brands and other public figures, and was relaunched in December 2022 with a checkmark system that identified companies with gold checkmarks and government, accounts with grey checkmarks.
The commission said the new verified accounts do not correspond with industry standards established under the Digital Services Act, which came into effect earlier this year, allowing for people to gain the mark without any authentication.
“Back in the day, BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe on the DSA,” Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for internal market, said.
The commission on Friday also said that X does not comply with the DSA’s requirements on transparency in advertising as it doesn’t provide a “searchable and reliable advertisement repository,” instead implementing design features and “access barriers” that don’t allow for supervision of risks presented by online advertising distribution.
Lastly, it found that X prohibits researchers from independently accessing the company’s public data and dissuades researchers by charging them to grant access to its application programming interface, or API.
