Elon Musk’s X was just fined $140 million by the European Commission for failing to follow Digital Services Act rules. File Photo by Francis Chung/UPI | License Photo
The European Commission on fined X $140 million for not verifying its “verified” users, lack of transparency in advertising and not allowing researchers access to data.
The commission said X’s practices violate the European Union’s Digital Services Act, announcing the first fine under the law passed in 2022, which is designed to protect users online.
“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU. … With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability, said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy for the commission, in a statement.
Vice President JD Vance posted his opinion on X Thursday before the decision was announced.
“Rumours swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship,” he wrote. “The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage.”
The fine is small compared with fines that the European Comission levied against Apple and Meta. In April, Apple was fined $583 million and Meta was fined $233 million for antitrust issues.
X’s blue checkmark once signified that an account — usually a celebrity or company — had been vetted to make sure the user was who they said they were. But when Elon Musk bought the company in October 2022, he began charging for the blue checkmark and opening it up to everyone.
“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,” the commission press release said, adding it makes users more vulnerable to scams and fraud.
The commission announced preliminary findings from the investigation into these practices in July 2024.
While the DSA doesn’t require verification, “it clearly prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users have been verified, when no such verification took place.”
The advertisement repository on X isn’t transparent and accessible enough to fall in line with the DSA, the EU said. This makes it difficult to detect scams and fake ads.
“X incorporates design features and access barriers, such as excessive delays in processing, which undermine the purpose of ad repositories,” the release said. It’s also missing important information, such as the content and topic of the ads and who is paying for it.
X doesn’t give researchers access to its public data, as required by the DSA, the release said.
“X’s processes for researchers’ access to public data impose unnecessary barriers, effectively undermining research into several systemic risks in the European Union,” the release said.
X now has 60 days to tell the E.U. how it intends to fix the blue checkmark issue and 90 days to submit an action plan for the other two violations.
Musk hasn’t yet commented publicly about the fines or what X plans to do.
