Musk fumes as Brussels wields axe over X 'blue ticks'

Social media site X has become the fourth tech platform in a matter of weeks to be found in breach of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, after the European Commission ruled that the “verified” blue tick accounts have the potential to deceive users.

The Commission said users could be hoodwinked into thinking the identity of those with blue tick marks was verified, when in fact anybody can pay for a blue tick, pointing to the fact it had found evidence of “malicious actors” abusing the system.

Like Apple, Meta and AliExpress before it, perhaps unsurpringly, X has denied the charge, which could lead to a fine up to 6% of its global annual turnover and being forced to change how it operates in the EU.

X owner Elon Musk blasted: “The DSA is misinformation”, while X chief executive Linda Yaccarino also defended the company’s practices.
She posted: “A democratised system, allowing everyone across Europe to access verification, is better than just the privileged few being verified.”

The findings follow a seven month investigation under the DSA, with the Commission it had found a lack of transparency around advertising and that X did not provide data for research use as required under EU rules.

The ruling stated: “In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as by scraping, as stated in its terms of service”.

It added that the way X designed and operated its interface for blue tick verified accounts did “not correspond to industry practice and deceives users”.

It continued: “Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a ‘verified’ status, it negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with. There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the ‘verified account’ to deceive users.”

Internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said: “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 the DSA.

“X has now the right of defence – but if our view is confirmed, we will impose fines and require significant changes.”

The Commission said X could resolve the issue by committing to changes that would bring it into compliance. Any such deal would be made public, it added, in response to Musk’s claim that the Commission had offered an “illegal secret deal”.