EU finds social media platform ‘X’ breaches EU guidelines News
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EU finds social media platform ‘X’ breaches EU guidelines

The EU Commission announced Friday that social media platform “X” (formerly “Twitter”) breached EU guidelines under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This follows an investigation launched into X’s advertising transparency, availability of data, and risk management.

X were informed of these preliminary findings on Friday, which found three primary breaches of the DSA. Firstly, the use of the Blue Check, a feature which anyone is able to subscribe to to achieve a “verified” status on their profile, was held to breach the DSA. The Commission stated that this feature “does not correspond to industry practice and deceives users,” because anyone is able to pay for it, no matter their identity. Secondly, the advertising system X uses was stated to be not “searchable or reliable” but full of “access barriers,” failing to comply with transparency requirements under the DSA. Further, the Commission highlighted that X “does not allow for the required supervision and research into emerging risks brought about by the distribution of advertising online.” Finally, X was found to prohibit “eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data,” a further breach of DSA requirements.

The Commission’s formal proceedings into X were launched on 18 December 2023 to assess any possible breaches of the DSA. X is categorised as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under EU law, as it reaches over 45 million EU users monthly, and is therefore required to comply with the DSA. Investigations into other breaches, including “dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat information manipulation” are ongoing.

Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, commented on the findings:

Back in the day, BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA. We also consider that X’s ads repository and conditions for data access by researchers are not in line with the DSA transparency requirements.

Going forward, X can exercise its right to defence by replying to the Commission and defending its findings. However, if the Commission’s views are later confirmed to be true, then X will be in breach of multiple DSA articles, resulting in fines of up to 6 percent of X’s total worldwide annual turnover, as well as an order to address these breaches.

X and other social media platforms has been under scrutiny since the Israel-Hamas war. Albeit X’s announcement of its measures to combat misinformation and “illegal content” promoting terrorism, the EU Commission issued a formal request for X’s explanations of compliance with the DSA.

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