The European Union’s regulatory body announced on Friday that Elon Musk’s social media platform has violated rules concerning advertising transparency, data accessibility for researchers, and user awareness.
The European Commission’s decision follows months of investigation into whether X — formerly known as Twitter before Musk’s acquisition in October 2022 — breached the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA aims to ensure major digital platforms protect user privacy and prevent harmful content dissemination.
According to the commission, X failed to comply with advertising transparency rules, noting the absence of a searchable ad database. In contrast, Meta’s Facebook provides an ad library enabling users to search for any advertisements that have run in the EU over the past year, including those addressing political or social issues over the past seven years.
The platform also faced criticism for not providing researchers with access to public data. Specifically, X’s decision to put its application programming interface— which allows researchers to access up to 10 million posts monthly— behind a costly paywall halted over 100 research projects.
The commission found that X’s verification system misleads users into believing certain accounts are legitimate. After Musk’s takeover, blue checkmarks, which previously indicated notable accounts, were tied to subscription services available for purchase by anyone. “There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the ‘verified account’ to deceive users,” the commission highlighted.
Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the internal market, stated, “Back in the day, BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information. We also consider that X’s ads repository and conditions for data access by researchers do not meet the DSA transparency requirements.”
Elon Musk responded with a series of remarks. In response to Breton’s post on X regarding blue checkmarks, Musk asked, “How we know you’re real?” He called the DSA “misinformation” and claimed that the European Commission had offered X an “illegal secret deal” to censor speech without public knowledge in exchange for avoiding fines, an allegation he suggested other platforms had accepted.
Breton rebutted Musk’s claims, asserting, “There has never been — and will never be — any ‘secret deal’ with anyone.” He explained that the DSA allows platforms to offer commitments to settle cases, emphasizing that X had sought clarity on the commission’s concerns and the settlement process.
X has the opportunity to respond to these preliminary findings. If upheld, the commission may fine X up to 6% of its global annual turnover and mandate actions to address the EU’s concerns.
The European Commission has been actively scrutinizing major tech companies recently, including Apple, Microsoft, and Meta, for potential violations of the Digital Markets Act.