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In a dramatic conclusion to its months-long investigation, the European Commission has now concluded that Elon Musk's X social media platform is in apparent violation of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).
Back in December 2023, European Commissioner Thierry Breton commenced a broad-based investigation into X's potential breach of DSA rules.
Specifically, the investigation honed in on X's efforts - or lack thereof - to counter hate speech and incitement of terrorism, which involved an evaluation of X's much-touted Community Notes feature that uses crowd-sourced fact-checks to combat misinformation.
The investigation also evaluated X's user-facing tools to flag illegal and sensitive content as well as the platform's response to those flagged concerns.
The European Commission also wanted to look into X's blue checkmarks that now accompany a paid subscription and whether these marks are indicative of a deceptive design.
Back in the day, #BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information✔️🐦
Now with X, our preliminary view is that:
❌They deceive users
❌They infrige #DSA
X has now the right of defence —but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines & require significant changes. pic.twitter.com/M9tGA5pYQr
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) July 12, 2024
This brings us to the crux of the matter. Breton has concluded today that Elon Musk's X platform is indeed in violation of the EU's DSA rules, as per the preliminary results of the European Commission's investigation.
The Commission found that the platform uses "dark patterns" to deceive its users and raised concerns around advertising transparency and data access for researchers.
Specifically, the Commission believes that X's blue checkmark for "verified accounts" is incongruent with standard industry practices as it allows virtually anyone to subscribe and obtain a verified status. The Commission further believes that there is evidence of "motivated malicious actors" abusing their verified status to deceive users.
The European Commission further believes X did not maintain "a searchable and reliable advertisement repository," as mandated under the DSA. The platform also blocked researchers from accessing its publicly available data in contravention of EU rules.
X now has the right to contest these charges. If the Commission's preliminary views are ultimately sustained, the platform may be fined up to 6 percent of its global annual sales. The Commission can also mandate specific changes to X's operational procedures.
This comes as X is already mulling significant changes. We reported back in April that, as per a "text strings" change for the platform, new users might soon be charged a small annual fee for performing basic actions, including liking, bookmarking, and replying to posts.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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