Elon Musk‘s X deceives its users and breaches online content rules, the European Commission said on Friday.
In a preliminary view, the Commission said the platform had broken rules regarding data access for researchers, advertising transparency, and “dark patterns.”
The body said X’s blue checkmark system for “verified accounts” deceives users as anyone can pay to obtain verified status. The Commission said the system did not correspond to industry practice and negatively affected users’ ability to make informed decisions about the authenticity of accounts.
“X has now the right of defence — but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines & require significant changes,” industry commissioner Thierry Breton posted on X.
X could be fined up to 6% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider if the Commission’s views are confirmed.
Representatives for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s digital chief, said that the Commission believed X failed to comply with Europe’s new Digital Services Act.
She said the platform breached the act in key 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.”
Since taking over Twitter and rebranding it as X, Musk has overhauled the platform’s verification system. The billionaire said the previous way of assigning blue check marks created a “lords & peasants system” on the platform.
Under Musk’s new system, users can pay for a monthly subscription to get a blue check mark on their account. They were previously assigned by Twitter to politicians, journalists and other prominent individuals and helped users identify reputable sources of information.
Earlier this year X began giving blue checks to some accounts with a high number of verified followers even though they had not subscribed. That prompted some users to declare they had not paid for the blue checks or asked for them.
