Elon Musk's X Corp., formerly Twitter, is being accused of breaching digital content regulations, which could have them face a million-dollar fine, according to a preliminary view released by the European Commission (EU) on Friday.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) requires large online platforms and search engines to take increased responsibility for tackling illegal content and promoting public safety.
X Corp.'s Employing Dark Patterns
The investigation, initiated in December, reached its preliminary findings by examining internal company documents and consulting with experts.
The European Commission, the executive body of the 27-member bloc, found X's violations concerning dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.
European Union's antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager posted on social media X that X does not comply with the DSA in key transparency areas, including using dark patterns to mislead users, the inadequacy of its ad repository, and blocking data access for researchers.
X failed to provide researchers with independent access to public data but instead structured its process for granting eligible researchers access to its API in a manner that discourages participation, Al Jazeera reported.
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X's Blue Checkmark Violation
X's use of the blue checkmark for verified accounts also does not align with industry practices. The Commission indicated that allowing anyone to subscribe for a "verified" status negatively impacts users' ability to make informed decisions about the authenticity of accounts and content they interact with. Evidence of verified status being misused by "motivated malicious actors" to deceive users has also been found.
Blue checks have long been recognized as trustworthy sources of information. However, the preliminary assessment of X indicates that the platform now deceives users and violates the DSA, European Commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X.
Back in the day, #BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information✔️🐦
Now with X, our preliminary view is that:
❌They deceive users
❌They infrige #DSA
X has now the right of defence —but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines & require significant changes. pic.twitter.com/M9tGA5pYQr— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) July 12, 2024
Musk retweeted that the European Commission proposed an unlawful secret agreement to X, suggesting that the platform would avoid fines if it censored speech quietly without telling anyone. Other platforms agreed to this arrangement, but X refused.
The European Commission offered 𝕏 an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2024
The other platforms accepted that deal.
𝕏 did not. https://t.co/4lKsaRsYoA
The company will now have the chance to review the findings thoroughly and provide a formal response. If the Commission's findings are validated, a non-compliance ruling could result in fines of up to 6% of the company's total global annual revenue, along with periodic penalty payments and periods of enhanced supervision.
Vestager added that transparency is the fundamental principle of EU regulation, which all platforms, including X, should adhere to.
Series of EU Proceedings Against Tech Companies
The European Commission has been taking legal proceedings against DSA non-compliance since the year's first half.
In March, AliExpress faced the EU for DSA violation in risk management and mitigation, content moderation, internal complaint handling mechanisms, advertising transparency, recommender systems, trader traceability, and data access for researchers, the EU said in a press release.
In April, the Commission also initiated proceedings against TikTok to evaluate whether the company breached the DSA when launching TikTok Lite in France and Spain.
Media sources reported that the EU also evaluated whether Meta, the provider of Facebook and Instagram, violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) in May in areas related to the protection of minors.
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