European Union (EU) officials have issued preliminary findings of an investigation into Elon Musk’s X Corp., accusing the social media giant of restricting data access for researchers, lack of advertising transparency, and the design of its “blue check” verified account system leaving users open to deception.
“In our view, X does not comply with the DSA in key transparency areas, by using dark patterns and thus misleading users, by failing to provide an adequate ad repository, and by blocking access to data for researchers,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, said in a statement.
Following an in-depth investigation into X’s compliance with the DSA, the European Commission said it identified three key problem areas.
The first of these involves the use of “dark patterns,” which it explains as design elements that manipulate users into making choices that may not be in their best interest. The commission alleged that X’s “blue check” verification system is deceptively designed, fails to meet industry standards, and is being abused by malicious actors to deceive users.
The European Commission alleged that allowing anyone to subscribe for verified status undermines users’ ability to make informed decisions about account authenticity and content.
“Back in the day, Blue Checks used to mean trustworthy sources of information,” Thierry Breton, commissioner for Internal Market, said in a statement. “Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA.”
The second area of non-compliance claimed by the commission is that X allegedly lacks transparency in advertising by failing to provide a reliable, searchable ad repository, instead implementing design barriers that hinder supervision and research into online advertising risks.
Third, the European Commission accused X of restricting researcher access to public data, discouraging research by prohibiting independent data scraping, and imposing high fees for application programming interface (API) access.
“X has now the right of defence—but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes,” Mr. Breton said.
The social media giant now has the opportunity to respond to the allegations and make changes so it’s in compliance with the DSA rules. If the European Commission isn’t satisfied, it can impose penalties on X worth 6 percent of its global revenues. Repeat offenders may be banned from operating in the EU altogether.
X’s press team replied to a request for comment with its customary “busy now, please check back later” automated message, while an inquiry sent to its EU-related team was not returned.
The preliminary findings are just one part of the European Commission’s investigation into X, which also involves an examination into whether the company is doing enough to restrict the spread of illegal content, such as “hate speech” or incitement to terrorism.
Other tech companies, such as e-commerce site AliExpress and Facebook-owner Meta are also facing investigations into whether they comply with the DSA regulations.
The DSA gives the European Commission more powers to monitor and regulate big tech firms designated as “gatekeepers” to comply with the EU’s regulations on content and monopoly activity.
Concerns about free speech under the DSA have emerged, including the worry that if a single EU member state flags content for removal, it could be blocked throughout the entire EU. This scenario could potentially allow certain governments within the bloc to control online speech across the entire region.
