EU fines Elon Musk's X $140,000,000 for allegedly misleading users with verified badges and not giving them access to its data.
The European Commission fined Elon Musk’s platform X €120 million (about $140 million) for violating the Digital Services Act. Regulators said X misled users by selling blue checkmarks without proper verification and failed to provide required transparency for ads and researcher data access. X must now propose fixes or face additional penalties under the law.
The penalty stems from deceptive design practices, particularly the blue checkmark system that lets anyone pay for verification, misleading users about account authenticity and increasing scam risks. Additional breaches include lack of ad transparency and denying researchers data access. This marks the first DSA enforcement against a major tech firm, aiming to curb online misinformation and protect users.
The fine issued Friday makes X the first company to be punished under the European Union’s new Digital Services Act, a sweeping regulation that established a framework meant to hold online platforms accountable, monitor content and ensure platform transparency.
The law has been largely criticized by the Trump administration, which has claimed it aims to stifle free speech and weeks ago said any country with such regulations would be dinged in the State Department's annual human rights report.
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,' the EC said.
'X's use of the 'blue checkmark' for 'verified accounts' deceives users,' the EC said. '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.'
The EC said X now has 60 working days to inform the Commision of the specific measures it intends to take to 'bring an end to the infringement' of the Digital Services Act, related to the 'deceptive use of blue checkmarks,' and 90 days to submit an action plan on ad transparency and research access, with ne risk of additional periodic fines if it fails to comply.
