The European Commission has fined social network X €120 million for breaching transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Points of attention
- Social network X was fined 120 million euros by the European Commission for breaching transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act.
- The violations included misleading design of the “blue tick”, lack of transparency in the advertising repository, and refusal to grant researchers access to public data.
- Use of the 'blue check mark' for 'verified accounts' on X was found to be misleading, as users could pay to become verified without proper verification.
Social network X will pay 120 million in fine to the European Commission
Among the violations are the misleading design of the "blue tick", the lack of transparency of the advertising repository, and the failure to provide researchers with access to public data.
This was reported by the press service of the European Commission.
Company X’s use of the “blue check mark” for “verified accounts” is misleading to users. It violates the DSA’s obligation for online platforms to prohibit deceptive design practices on their services. On X, anyone can pay to become “verified” (account — ed.) without the company thoroughly verifying who is behind the account, making it difficult for users to assess the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with.
The European Commission stressed that this deceptive practice exposes social media users to the risk of fraud, including identity fraud and other forms of manipulation. While the DSA does not require user verification, the law clearly prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users have been verified if such verification has not been carried out.
It is also noted that social network X is not fulfilling its obligations under the DSA to provide researchers with access to the platform's public data.
Ad Repository X does not meet DSA transparency and accessibility requirements. Accessible and searchable ad repositories are critical for researchers and civil society to detect fraud, hybrid threats, coordinated information operations, and false advertising.
It is noted that this is the first EC decision on non-compliance with requirements under the DSA.
The company of American billionaire Elon Musk now has 60 working days to notify the European Commission of the specific measures it intends to take to end the violation related to the misleading use of "blue ticks", and 90 days for other violations.
Failure to comply with the decision may result in periodic penalties.
