Musk's X charged with deceiving users via blue checkmark, risks fine, EU says

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Elon Musk's social media company X breached EU online content rules and its blue checkmark deceives users, EU tech regulators ruled on Friday in a finding that could lead to a hefty fine and significant changes in how it operates.

The charges by the European Commission, the first issued under the Digital Services Act (DSA), follow a seven-month long investigation. The new rules require very large online platforms and search engines to do more to tackle illegal content and risks to public security.

The EU executive's preliminary findings or charges sent to X targeted the company's so-called dark patterns that shape user behaviour, its advertising transparency and data access for researchers.

It said X's verified accounts which carry a blue checkmark do not correspond to industry practice and negatively affect users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts they interact with.

After buying the platform then known as Twitter in 2022, Musk altered the use of the blue checkmark, which previously indicated that an account belonged to a public figure whose identity was verified but was changed to indicate it belonged to a paid subscriber.

The commission said X had also failed to comply with a DSA requirement to provide searchable and reliable information about advertisements in a library for easy access.

X was also charged with blocking researchers from accessing its public data. The company, which will have several months to respond to the charges, could face a fine of as much as 6% of its global turnover if found guilty of breaching the DSA.

"X has now the right of defence — but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes," EU industry chief Thierry Breton said in a statement.

Musk, known for mocking public figures who criticise his companies, responded to Breton on X: "How we know you're real?"

In a response on X to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, Musk wrote: "The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not."

The Commission said separate investigations continue into dissemination of illegal content on X and measures it has taken to counter disinformation.

ByteDance's TikTok, AliExpress and Meta Platforms are also being investigated under the DSA.

(Reporting by Foo Yun CheeEditing by Jason Neely, David Evans, Peter Graff)