The European Union’s regulatory body announced on Friday that Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter), has violated its rules concerning advertising transparency, data access for researchers, and keeping users informed.
This decision by the European Commission follows months of investigation into whether X, after Musk’s acquisition in October 2022, breached the Digital Services Act (DSA). This law aims to ensure that major digital platforms safeguard user privacy and prevent the spread of harmful content online.
The Commission noted that X failed to comply with its advertising transparency requirements, as it does not provide a searchable database for advertisements. In contrast, Meta’s Facebook maintains an ad library where users can search for ads that have run in the EU over the past year, including those related to political or social issues for up to seven years.
Additionally, the platform has been criticized for not granting researchers access to public data. The Commission highlighted Musk’s decision to place X’s application programming interface, which allows researchers access to around 10 million posts monthly, behind a costly paywall. This move has halted at least 100 research projects.
The Commission also found issues with X’s verification system, which it claims misleads users into believing some accounts are legitimate. After Musk’s takeover, the blue checkmarks indicating verified and notable users were removed and are now tied to subscription accounts available for purchase. The Commission stated that malicious actors have exploited this system to deceive users.
Thierry Breton, the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, commented on the matter, stating, “BlueChecks used to be sources of trustworthy information. X’s ad repository and data access conditions for researchers do not meet the DSA transparency requirements.”
In response, Musk posted a series of remarks on X. He questioned Breton’s legitimacy and labeled the DSA as “misinformation.” Musk also alleged that the European Commission offered X an “illegal secret deal” to censor speech secretly, a claim which the Commission has denied.
Breton responded to Musk by stating, “There has never been — and will never be — any ‘secret deal’. With anyone.” He mentioned that the DSA allows large platforms to offer commitments for case settlement and added that X requested clarification on the Commission’s concerns and the settlement process.
X has the opportunity to respond to the European Commission’s preliminary findings. If the findings are confirmed, X could face fines of up to 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover and be mandated to take actions addressing the EU’s concerns.
The Commission has recently been active in addressing violations by tech giants. In addition to X, it has also accused Apple, Microsoft, and Meta of breaching its anti-competition law, the Digital Markets Act.