Musk’s X Found in Breach of EU Digital-Content Law
The European Commission said it identified three grievances over X’s content practices, which could lead to a fine of up to 6% of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover
Elon Musk’s social-media platform X is in breach of the European Union’s online-content law, opening the company up to a large potential fine, according to a preliminary decision from the bloc’s executive arm.
Friday’s decision from the European Commission follows a monthslong investigation into X, formerly known as Twitter, to assess whether it infringed the Digital Services Act, legislation that requires some of the world’s biggest online platforms to address illegal content and offer transparency around content moderation and advertising, among other rules.
The commission said it identified three grievances over X’s content practices, which could lead to a fine of up to 6% of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover. After Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he delisted the company and its financial performance data are no longer publicly available, making the potential size of any fine difficult to calculate.
The commission found that X’s design and functioning of its blue checkmark feature is an illegal verification tool as anyone can pay to obtain the checkmark and gain verified status, which deceives users. The checkmarks were previously reserved for users that Twitter deemed authentic and notable, but are now tied to subscription accounts.
“It negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with,” the commission said. “There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the ‘verified account’ to deceive users,” it added.
It also found that X failed to comply with advertising transparency rules as it doesn’t provide proper access to the company’s store of advertisements. The commission argued that users can’t use X’s advertising repository to find advertisers and view details including creatives, targeting information and reach.
A third failing concerns the accessibility of public data to researchers, as the commission said X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data.
The findings are preliminary and X now has the chance to respond. If the commission ultimately confirms its preliminary findings, the company could be fined, and in the case of non-compliance, subjected to an enhanced supervision period to ensure compliance and periodic penalty payments.
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A probe into X’s measures to counter the spread of illegal content and combat disinformation continues, the bloc said. Investigators are looking at the effectiveness of X’s Community Notes feature, which allows volunteers to add context to posts and aims to improve the reliability of information contained in posts.
X isn’t alone in coming under scrutiny. The EU is also investigating other social media companies that it considers very large online platforms—those that have a userbase of at least 45 million average active users in the bloc.
It is looking into TikTok to examine potential breaches of the Digital Services Act in areas linked to the protection of minors, advertising transparency, data access for researchers, and risk management of addictive design and harmful content. Earlier this year, the EU opened a second probe into a new product the video app launched that allows users to earn points while performing certain tasks.
An investigation into Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms is looking into potential breaches surrounding the protection of minors as well as advertising and political content among other things, while AliExpress is also being probed over various risk and transparency concerns.