EU Sues Elon Musk Over Blue Checks, Ads: NPR

Elon Musk says he will defend himself against allegations he violated the European Digital Services Act. Musk visits the Vivatech tech startup and innovation fair in Paris, on June 16, 2023. (R) Twitter’s new logo, rebranded as the X, is pictured on a screen in Paris, on July 24, 2023.

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The European Union filed its first charges under a new social media law on Friday, accusing Elon Musk’s X of violating the regulation by deceiving users and failing to comply with transparency requirements.

European regulators say that when Musk relaunched the blue verification system after buying Twitter in late 2022, he allowed anyone to pay for the once-coveted badge. That led to the platform being flooded with fake accounts, impersonators and massive amounts of misinformation.

“It negatively impacts users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and content they interact with,” the committee wrote in its report. Its results“There is evidence of paid malicious actors exploiting the ‘verified account’ to trick users.”

In the United States, the chaos and confusion that followed Musk’s changes has drawn criticism from misinformation researchers.

In the European Union, authorities say the new blue check system violates the law, specifically a regulation known as the Digital Services Act, or DSA, which forces major social media companies to strictly monitor harmful content or face financial penalties.

In addition to the blue checks, European authorities have accused Musk of other violations.

Under the new law, Company X must publish a database of all the digital ads it runs, with details of who funded those ads and the audience they target.

But EU investigators said the X-Ads database was not “searchable and reliable,” making it difficult for researchers to study “emerging risks,” such as ads carrying malicious messages or targeting vulnerable groups.

Musk will have the opportunity to defend his company against the charges and propose measures to address the EU’s concerns. But if Musk refuses to address the issues, his company could face a fine of up to 6% of the company’s annual global revenue, a figure that could easily run into the tens of millions of dollars.

In an article on X, Musk wrote, “If we just quietly censor speech without telling anyone, they won’t fine us. Other platforms have accepted this deal, but X hasn’t,” Musk said, vowing to fight the case.

The charges against X come after a months-long investigation into the company. Nearly two years ago, a senior European Commission official told NPR that Musk would face huge fines if he ignored the bloc’s new digital services rules.

European authorities are also investigating whether X has done enough to combat disinformation and illegal hate speech. That investigation is ongoing, European officials said Friday.

Other major social media platforms are under investigation for possible breaches of the GDPR, including TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, but the EU has yet to bring formal charges against either company.