Having been the subject of a ‘formal infringement procedure’ since last December (see EUROPE 13316/10), the social network X was notified on Friday 12 July of the preliminary findings of the investigation conducted by the European Commission, which considers that the platform is in breach of the rules of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
X is “misleading” its users through its system of certified accounts, said the Commission, which believes that this practice has been diverted from its original use.
X “designs and operates its interface for the ‘verified accounts’ with the ‘Blue checkmark’ in a way that does not correspond to industry practice and deceives users”, according to the Commission, which points out that anyone who pays a certain amount can obtain ‘verified’ status from X and thus distort the principle of authenticity of the account and the information shared.
This challenge is the first of its kind under the Digital Services Act, which came into force in the EU in November 2022 (see EUROPE 13064/18).
In addition, the Commission believes that Elon Musk’s company is in breach of its transparency obligations with regard to advertising and access to the platform’s data for researchers, which has been virtually non-existent since the takeover by the US billionaire.
According to the Commission, X “does not provide a searchable and reliable advertisement repository, but instead put in place design features and access barriers that make the repository unfit for its transparency purpose towards users”.
X now has the opportunity to provide the Commission with its own information to prove its compliance with the DSA rules, in response to the evidence presented by the EU.
Otherwise, the company is liable to fines of up to 6% of total worldwide annual turnover.
Two other investigations against X unknown are still underway, concerning the platform’s ability to adequately moderate illegal and misleading content posted on the social network (see EUROPE 13407/10).
On 12 October last year, the Commission opened a preliminary procedure following the “violent and terrorist content” and “hate speech” disseminated after the Hamas attacks on Israel, before launching a formal investigation a few months later. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)