The former Twitter has received a new slap on the wrist from Brussels. The European Commission has today informed the X network of its preliminary opinion that it infringes the Digital Services Act (DSA) “in areas related to dark patterns, advertising transparency and access to data for researchers.” The Community Executive maintains that the social network does not meet the requirements of transparency and accountability in relation to content moderation and advertising.
Brussels believes that X’s new account verification policy (the blue tick) “does not correspond to industry practice and misleads users.” The company’s owner, Elon Musk, decided to change the way of obtaining the blue seal, which until then was awarded by the social network itself based on its own analyses. Since April 2023, this badge can be obtained by anyone who pays the monthly subscription fee to X (formerly Twitter).
Back in the day, #BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information✔️🐦
Now with X, our preliminary view is that:
❌They deceive users
❌They infringe #DSA
X now has the right of defence —but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes. pic.twitter.com/M9tGA5pYQr
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) July 12, 2024
“As anyone can sign up for this verified status, it negatively impacts users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and content they interact with,” the Commission said. “There is evidence that motivated malicious actors abuse the verified account to deceive users,” the agency said in a statement.
The investigation, launched in December last year, also concludes that X “does not respect the transparency required in advertising” as it does not provide a reliable and accessible repository of advertising. This opacity prevents, for example, the Community institutions from checking the dissemination of misleading advertising.
Finally, the Commission notes that X does not provide researchers with access to its public data, as required by the DSA. The process that researchers must follow in order to be able to use X’s application programming interface (API) “appears to discourage them from carrying out their research projects or leaves them with no choice but to pay disproportionately high fees,” Brussels notes.
X now has the opportunity to examine the documentation on which the Commission has based its investigation and to submit comments. If the Commission’s preliminary views are ultimately confirmed, the institution would adopt a decision of infringement of the Digital Services Act which could entail fines of up to 6% of X’s total annual worldwide turnover.
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