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Elon Musk’s social media platform X has been fined \u20ac120m (\u00a3105m) by the EU over its blue tick badges – despite US warnings about doing so.<\/p>\n
The European Commission said by allowing people to pay for a blue verified check mark on their profile, the platform “deceives users” because the firm is not “meaningfully verifying” who is behind the account.<\/p>\n
“This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” it said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The BBC has approached X for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n US Vice President JD Vance lashed out at the EU amid rumours of its forthcoming fine on Thursday – claiming it was being punished “for not engaging in censorship”.<\/p>\n “The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage,” he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to taking issue at its use of blue ticks, EU regulators said X was also failing to provide transparency around its adverts, and it was not giving researchers access to public data.<\/p>\n “The fine issued today was calculated taking into account the nature of these infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users, and their duration,” the Commission said.<\/p>\n Henna Virkkunen, the regulator’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said it was “holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability”.<\/p>\n “Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU,” she said.<\/p>\n The decision means X must tell the Commission how it will bring the allegedly violating measures into compliance with EU laws, or face further, periodic fines.<\/p>\n The action constitutes the Commission’s first decision on a platform’s “non-compliance” with its Digital Services Act (DSA) – one of two rulebooks online firms must follow in order to operate their services in the EU.<\/p>\n The DSA sets out obligations for platforms around content, data and advertising, while the Digital Markets Act establishes how companies should operate in order to benefit consumers and competition.<\/p>\n Such rules have come under increased scrutiny from US leaders, who warned against tougher regulation of tech firms by governments and regulators.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Musk’s shake-up to verification formed part of a sweeping set of changes he made after acquiring Twitter in late 2022.<\/p>\n It saw the previous system – which functioned similarly to other social media verification schemes displaying someone as verified if they supply proof of who they are – cast out and replaced with one tied to its Premium subscription tier<\/a>.<\/p>\n This required people to pay a monthly subscription fee if they wanted a blue tick displayed next to their account name on the site.<\/p>\n To get a verified checkmark, an X account must have a display name and profile picture, a confirmed phone number and have been active in the previous 30 days.<\/p>\n They also cannot be “misleading or deceptive” or have engaged in spam activity.<\/p>\n Musk launched the new system as a way to incentivise people to subscribe and boost X’s overall income.<\/p>\n It also gave blue tick holders a higher presence in replies, and was mooted as a way to tackle the amount of bots on the platform.<\/p>\n