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The European Union said Friday that\u00a0blue checkmarks<\/a>\u00a0from Elon Musk\u2019s X are deceptive and that the online platform falls short on transparency and accountability requirements, the first charges against a tech company since the bloc\u2019s new social media regulations took effect.<\/p>\n The European Commission outlined the\u00a0preliminary findings<\/a>\u00a0from its investigation into X, formerly known as Twitter, under the 27-nation bloc\u2019s\u00a0Digital Services Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n The rulebook, also known as the DSA, is a sweeping set of regulations that requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting their European users and cleaning up harmful or illegal content and products on their sites, under threat of hefty fines.<\/p>\n Regulators took aim at X\u2019s blue checks, saying they constitute \u201cdark patterns\u201d that are not in line with industry best practice and can be used by malicious actors to deceive users.<\/p>\n Before Musk\u2019s acquisition, the checkmarks mirrored verification badges common on social media and were largely reserved for celebrities, politicians and other influential accounts. After Musk\u00a0bought the site in 2022<\/a>, it started issuing them to anyone who paid $8 per month for one.<\/p>\n \u201cSince anyone can subscribe to obtain such a \u2018verified\u201d status\u2019 it negatively affects users\u2019 ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with,\u201d the commission said.<\/p>\n The accusations, which also include blocking data access to researchers and shortcomings in its ad database, drew a combative response from Musk.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us,\u201d\u00a0he wrote<\/a>\u00a0on the site. \u201cThe other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.\u201d He did not provide further details.<\/p>\n An email request for comment to X resulted in an automated response that said \u201cBusy now, please check back later.\u201d Its main spokesman reportedly left the company in June.<\/p>\n In another post, Musk said, \u201cWe look forward to a very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth.\u201d <\/p>\n That drew a response from European Commissioner Thierry Breton<\/a>, who welcomed the challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has never been \u2014 and will never be \u2014 any \u2018secret deal\u2019. With anyone,\u201d he added. \u201cThe DSA provides X (and any large platform) with the possibility to offer commitments to settle a case.\u201d<\/p>\n Breton also said X asked the European Commission to explain the process for settlement and to clarify its concerns, explaining that the EU followed established procedures and leaving it up to Musk\u2019s company decide on any commitments.<\/p>\n \u201cBack in the day, BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information,\u201d Breton said in an earlier statement. \u201cNow with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA.\u201d<\/p>\n The commission also charged X with failing to comply with ad transparency rules. Under the DSA platforms must publish a database of all digital advertisements that they\u2019ve carried, with details such as who paid for them and the intended audience.<\/p>\n But X\u2019s ad database isn\u2019t \u201csearchable and reliable\u201d and has \u201cdesign features and access barriers\u201d that make it \u201cunfit for its transparency purpose,\u201d the commission said. The database\u2019s design in particular hinders researchers from looking into \u201cemerging risks\u201d from online ads, it said.<\/p>\n The company also falls short when it comes to giving researchers access to public data, the commission said. The DSA imposes the provisions so that researchers can scrutinize how platforms work and how online risks evolve.<\/p>\n But researchers can\u2019t independently access data by scraping it from the site, while the process to request access from the company through an interface \u201cappears to dissuade researchers\u201d from carrying out their projects or gives them no choice but to pay high fees, it said.<\/p>\n X now has a chance to respond to the accusations and make changes to comply, which would be legally binding. If the commission isn\u2019t satisfied, it can levy penalties worth up to 6% of the company\u2019s annual global revenue and order it to fix the problem.<\/p>\n The findings are only a part of the investigation. Regulators are still looking into\u00a0whether X is failing to do enough<\/a>\u00a0to curb the spread of illegal content \u2014 such as hate speech or incitement of terrorism \u2014 and the effectiveness of measures to combat \u201c\u00a0information manipulation<\/a>,\u201d especially through its crowd-sourced Community Notes fact-checking feature.<\/p>\n TikTok, e-commerce site AliExpress and Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms are also facing ongoing DSA investigations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n