is the latest notable tech company to run into trouble with . The block has an executive branch of the investigation. Alleges that X broke the law in a number of ways.
The platform’s approach to paid verification became the focus of the EU. Officials say the practice is “inconsistent with industry practice and misleading to users.” He added that because anyone can pay to get a blue tick, it’s difficult for people to determine the authenticity of accounts (a can tell which accounts are checked for salience and which are paid for checkmarks). The EU also said there was evidence that bad actors were using signs to trick people.
X’s problems with verification go back several years. But at least when it’s known as Twitter, the blue check () form of reliable assurance that the account is the real deal. Increased visibility gained by paid bookmarks and Premium users has led to an increase in fraud and spam — .
After that, the EU took issue with X’s lack of advertising transparency. He claimed the company lacked a reliable, searchable ad repository that would have allowed researchers to examine “the risks posed by the proliferation of online advertising.”
In addition, the EU said that X violated the DSA by not providing researchers with sufficient access to public information. “In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as scraping, as specified in its terms of service,” the bloc claimed in a statement. According to the EU, researchers are either discouraged or forced to carry out projects To do this, given that X has built in application programming interfaces (APIs).
“Blue Checks used to mean reliable sources of information. Now with X, our initial view is that they are misleading users and violating the DSA,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner. “We also believe that X’s terms of ad storage and access to data by researchers do not comply with DSA transparency requirements. X now has a right to a defense – but if our view is upheld, we will impose fines and demand significant changes.”
If convicted, X faces fines of up to six percent of its global annual revenue – so now we can see how much money the private company is making these days. The EU could also direct Xi to take steps to ensure compliance with the DSA and impose additional periodic fines if the company fails to do so.
The EU has not hesitated to take tech companies to task under the DSA and its sister laws, the Digital Markets Act. and Both could face billions of dollars in fines if the preliminary findings of the investigations hold up.
