European Commission finds Elon Musk's X breaches EU digital laws

Elon Musk's social media platform X is in breach of EU digital laws due to deceiving users and transparency failures, the European Commission announced on Friday in a preliminary finding.

The commission said that X's verification system for users, known as the blue checkmark system, was open to abuse by "motivated malicious actors" since anyone may purchase the status.

Before, the blue checkmark system "used to mean trustworthy sources of information," EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement.

"Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users," he said. "X has now the right of defence — but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes," he added.

Blue check mark symbols used to be awarded to user accounts of prominent public figures and companies by Twitter, the previous name for X before Musk's takeover of the platform, after the company verified the identity of the applicant.

However, Musk decided to allow blue check mark symbols for all users who purchased a subscription, leading to confusion as non-verified fake accounts looked similar to real ones.

Under an EU set of laws called the Digital Services Act (DSA), social media platforms with more than 45 million active users like X are subject to far-reaching content moderation rules.

Infringements of the DSA can result in fines. For designated companies, financial penalties can be up to 6% of global turnover. In exceptional circumstances, with a court order, a company can be temporarily shut down.

This is the first time the commission has published preliminary findings under the DSA and has stressed that the result is not yet final. X is now able to respond in writing to defend itself. The social media giant was not initially available for comment.

If the final outcome finds that X does breach the DSA, financial penalties are to follow and the EU executive arm can order the social media company to address the breaches.

The commission may also supervise X to ensure compliance with the solutions offered to solve the issues. Further periodic fines may also follow to compel the company to comply.

X may appeal the final outcome before the EU's courts.

The preliminary findings against X were reached after consultations with national authorities, interviews with experts and the analysis of internal company documents, the commission said.

Other failures from X in "key transparency areas" included blocking access to data for researchers, and not providing enough information about the advertising shown on the platform, European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said.

"The DSA has transparency at its very core, and we are determined
to ensure that all platforms, including X, comply with EU legislation," she said.