X breaches Digital Services Act: EU

The European Commission announced on Friday that its preliminary view has found social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers, reported Xinhua.

The "verified accounts" with the "blue checkmark" do not correspond to industry practice and deceive users, according to the statement released by the European Commission.

"There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the 'verified account' to deceive users," the statement said.

It also noted that the social media platform does not comply with the required transparency on advertising and fails to provide access to its public data to researchers in line with the conditions set out in the DSA.

The European Union's (EU) DSA, which came into effect last year, obliges tech companies to do more to counter illegal content and mitigate risks such as disinformation.

An ultimate confirmation of a non-compliance decision finding that X is in breach of DSA could entail fines of up to 6 percent of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider.

Friday's findings follow a formal proceeding initiated by the European Commission in December 2023 to assess whether X may have breached the act on several issues. The investigation regarding some of the areas still continues.

X was designated as a very large online platform in April 2023 under the DSA, following its declaration of reaching more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU. The classification exposes it to the most stringent regulations outlined in the DSA.