The US secretary of state has criticised a decision by the European Commission (EU) to fine X €120 million for breaching its transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
According to the EU the social media platform’s use of the ‘blue tick’ for verified accounts violates the DSA requirement for tech companies to refrain from using “misleading” design practices on their services.
On X, anyone can pay to obtain ‘verified’ status without the company significantly verifying who is behind the account, making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of the accounts and content they interact with.
The EU described the practice is “deceptive”, claiming it exposes users to scams, including identity theft fraud, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors.
“The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” wrote US secretary of state Marco Rubio on X. “The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
The comment was reposted by the platform’s owner Elon Musk, who added “absolutely” at the end of the post.
Although the DSA does not require user verification, it prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users have been verified when that verification has not taken place.
Musk introduced these changes after acquiring Twitter in late 2022, adapting the previous system which instead showed a person as verified if they provided proof of their identity.
The new system now enables users with a premium subscription to pay a monthly fee if they want a blue tick to appear next to their account name on the site, encouraging users to subscribe.
The Commission also accused X’s advertising archive of failing to meet the transparency and accessibility requirements set out in the DSA.
Accessible and searchable advertising archives are considered essential to enable researchers and civil society to identify scams, hybrid threat campaigns, coordinated information operations and misleading advertising, the EU said.
According to the Commission, X incorporates design features and access barriers, such as excessive processing delays, that undermine the purpose of advertising archives.
X’s ads repository also lacks critical information, such as the content and topic of the advertisement, as well as the legal entity paying for it, hindering researchers and the public to independently scrutinise any potential risks in online advertising, it said.
Additionally, X failed to comply with its obligations under the DSA to provide researchers with access to the platform’s public data.
For example, X’s terms of service prohibit eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, including through scraping.
Furthermore, X’s procedures for researchers’ access to public data impose “unnecessary obstacles,” the EU said, undermining research on various systemic risks in the EU.
Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for technological sovereignty, security and democracy at the European Commission said that deceiving users with blue ticks, obscuring information about advertisements, and excluding researchers “have no place” online in the EU.
“With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability,” she added.
The Commission stated that the penalty amount takes into account the nature of the infringements, their seriousness in terms of EU users affected, and their duration.
X now has 60 working days to inform the Commission of the specific measures it intends to take to end the infringement relating to the misleading use of blue ticks.
It also has 90 days to submit an action plan to the Commission setting out the measures necessary to remedy the infringements of the articles relating to the advertising archive and access to public data for researchers.
The Commission will then submit a final report within two months.
