Elon Musks X fined €120m over deceptive blue ticks

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has been fined €120m (£105m) by the EU over its blue tick badges – despite US warnings about doing so.

The European Commission said by allowing people to pay for a blue verified check mark on their profile, the platform “deceives users” because the firm is not “meaningfully verifying” who is behind the account.

“This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” it said.

The BBC has approached X for comment.

US Vice President JD Vance lashed out at the EU amid rumours of its forthcoming fine on Thursday – claiming it was being punished “for not engaging in censorship”.

“The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage,” he said.

In addition to taking issue at its use of blue ticks, EU regulators said X was also failing to provide transparency around its adverts, and it was not giving researchers access to public data.

“The fine issued today was calculated taking into account the nature of these infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users, and their duration,” the Commission said.

Henna Virkkunen, the regulator’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said it was “holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability”.

“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU,” she said.

The decision means X must tell the Commission how it will bring the allegedly violating measures into compliance with EU laws, or face further, periodic fines.

The action constitutes the Commission’s first decision on a platform’s “non-compliance” with its Digital Services Act (DSA) – one of two rulebooks online firms must follow in order to operate their services in the EU.

The DSA sets out obligations for platforms around content, data and advertising, while the Digital Markets Act establishes how companies should operate in order to benefit consumers and competition.

Such rules have come under increased scrutiny from US leaders, who warned against tougher regulation of tech firms by governments and regulators.

Musk’s shake-up to verification formed part of a sweeping set of changes he made after acquiring Twitter in late 2022.

It saw the previous system – which functioned similarly to other social media verification schemes displaying someone as verified if they supply proof of who they are – cast out and replaced with one tied to its Premium subscription tier.

This required people to pay a monthly subscription fee if they wanted a blue tick displayed next to their account name on the site.

To get a verified checkmark, an X account must have a display name and profile picture, a confirmed phone number and have been active in the previous 30 days.

They also cannot be “misleading or deceptive” or have engaged in spam activity.

Musk launched the new system as a way to incentivise people to subscribe and boost X’s overall income.

It also gave blue tick holders a higher presence in replies, and was mooted as a way to tackle the amount of bots on the platform.

But it proved highly controversial, with warnings it might open users up to scams by impersonators or fake accounts and increase the profile of bad actors and misleading content.