The European Union has preliminary concluded that under the Digital Services Act (DSA), Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) does not comply with the DSA in key transparency areas.
The European Commission announced on Friday that it “has informed X of its preliminary view that it is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.”
This finding could potential lead to a hefty financial penalty for X (up to 6 percent of its turnover), as well as significant changes in how the platform operates (at least in the European Union).
Internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said at the time that the probe would also look into whether X’s blue checks for paying subscribers constitutes a “deceptive” user interface design.
In February 2023 the European Commission had criticised Twitter’s compliance with the EU’s voluntary code of practice on disinformation, saying its efforts were falling short of those of its peers.
Now the European Commission has issued its preliminary findings of non-compliance against X on three grievances:
First, 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. Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a “verified” status, it negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with. There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the “verified account” to deceive users.
Second, X does not comply with the required transparency on advertising, as it 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. In particular, the design does not allow for the required supervision and research into emerging risks brought about by the distribution of advertising online.
Third, X fails to provide access to its public data to researchers in line with the conditions set out in the DSA. In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as by scraping, as stated in its terms of service. In addition, X’s process to grant eligible researchers access to its application programming interface (API) appears to dissuade researchers from carrying out their research projects or leave them with no other choice than to pay disproportionally high fees.
X now has to study the EU findings and respond.
Blue checks deceive users
“Back in the day, Blue Checks used to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA,” said Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market.
Thierry Breton. Image credit: European Parliament
“We also consider that X’s ads repository and conditions for data access by researchers are not in line with the DSA transparency requirements. X has now the right of defence – but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes,” said Breton.
“Today we issue for the first time preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act,” added Margrethe Vestager, Executive VP for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age. “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.”