Senior European Commission officials are brandishing the threat of fines over changes made by Elon Musk to the “blue check” system used by his social media giant X.
Europe’s self-styled “digital enforcer” Thierry Breton appears to be particularly angry about the adjustments, which were made shortly after Musk bought the platform, then called Twitter, and now claims they go against European Union law.
In a statement first published — ironically — on X, Breton accused the platform of misleading users with its blue checkmarks in a way that is illegal under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Blue Checkmarks never meant “trustworthy sources of information”.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 12, 2024
“Back in the day, BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information,” he claimed.
“Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users.
“X has now the right of defence —but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines & require significant changes,” he concluded.
His statement prompted an angry backlash among X’s userbase, many of whom accused the European Commission official of misleading the public with his own claims about blue checkmarks.
“Blue Checkmarks never meant ‘trustworthy sources of information’,” current affairs outlet Visegrad 24 wrote in response to Breton, with others accusing him of trying to “retcon”, ie revise, the past functionality of the website.
That appears to be in line with official Twitter documents, with an archived version of the social media platform 2014 Help Center describing the system as being in place to prove an individual’s identity rather than verify the info contained in their individual posts.
“Verification is currently used to establish authenticity of identities on Twitter,” Visegrad 24 said.
“The verified badge helps users discover high-quality sources of information and trust that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s Tweets.”
Since October 2023, the European Commission has deployed the Digital Services Act 56 times against major online platforms and search engines, with more than 50 per cent of cases targeting Meta, X, and TikTok.
👉🏼 Read more https://t.co/EzxNi1jjjb #techupdates #technologycompany pic.twitter.com/b3qEtW7IQR
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 21, 2024
The EC is insistent that the current version of the blue check system is in breech of EU law.
As a result, should X fail to appeal the ruling, the company faces fines under the DSA of up to 6 per cent of its global annual turnover.
Blue checks are not the only alleged legal failing the EC claims justifies a fine, with the body accusing X of being in breach of DSA rules surrounding advertising and transparency.
“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,” said EC Vice-President Margrethe Vestager.
“The DSA has transparency at its very core, and we are determined to ensure that all platforms, including X, comply with EU legislation.”
Neither official provided an estimate for when a final decision on whether or not to impose any fine would be made.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has come first in an anti-disinformation test held ahead of the European elections. https://t.co/BnrdwQtByN
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 4, 2024
