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X’s verified accounts ‘deceive users’ – EU

The European Commission has told X that it believes that the social-media platform is in breach of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.

The commission said that its preliminary findings were based on an in-depth investigation that included an analysis of internal company documents, interviews with experts, and co-operation with national agencies.

X, formerly known as Twitter, will now be allowed to examine the documents in the commission's investigation file and reply in writing to its findings.

‘Blue checkmark’

The EU body said that X designed and operated its interface for ‘verified accounts’ with a ‘blue checkmark’ in a way that did not correspond to industry practice and deceived users.

“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,” the commission stated, adding that there was evidence that “motivated malicious actors” were abusing the ‘verified account’.

“Back in the day, ‘blue checks’ used to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA,” said Thierry Breton (Commissioner for Internal Market).

Advertising transparency

The commission also believes that X does not comply with the required transparency on advertising, as it does not provide a searchable and reliable advertisement repository.

It said that X had put in place design features and access barriers that made the repository “unfit for its transparency purpose towards users”.

The EU body also said that the platform had failed to provide access to its public data to researchers, in line with the conditions set out in the DSA.

X was designated as a VLOP (very large online platform) under the DSA earlier this year.

If it is eventually found to be in breach of the DSA, X could face fines of up to 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover.