The breaches include the deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark’, the lack of transparency of its advertising repository, and the failure to provide access to public data for researchers.

Deceptive design of X’s ‘blue checkmark’

X’s use of the ‘blue checkmark’ for ‘verified accounts’ deceives users. This violates the DSA obligation for online platforms to prohibit deceptive design practices on their services. On X, anyone can pay to obtain the ‘verified’ status without the company meaningfully verifying who is behind the account, making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with. This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors. While the DSA does not mandate user verification, it clearly prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users have been verified, when no such verification took place.

Lack of transparency of X’s ads repository

X’s advertisement repository fails to meet the transparency and accessibility requirements of the DSA. Accessible and searchable ad repositories are critical for researchers and civil society to detect scams, hybrid threat campaigns, coordinated information operations and fake advertisements.

X incorporates design features and access barriers, such as excessive delays in processing, which undermine the purpose of ad repositories. X’s ads repository also lacks critical information, such as the content and topic of the advertisement, as well as the legal entity paying for it. This hinders researchers and the public to independently scrutinise any potential risks in online advertising.

Failure to provide researchers access to public data

X fails to meet its DSA obligations to provide researchers with access to the platform’s public data. For instance, X’s terms of service prohibit eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, including through scraping. Moreover, X’s processes for researchers’ access to public data impose unnecessary barriers, effectively undermining research into several systemic risks in the European Union.

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.

This is the first non-compliance decision under the DSA.

Read the full press release:

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2934

Commission_fines_X__120_million_under_the_Digital_Services_Act

Source:

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-fines-x-eu120-million-under-digital-services-act