Today, the European Commission fined X €120 million for violating the Digital Services Act’s (DSA) transparency requirements. Users are tricked by X’s usage of the “blue checkmark” for “verified accounts.” The DSA’s requirement that online platforms forbid deceptive design tactics on their services is broken by this.
X’s advertisement repository does not meet the DSA’s requirements for accessibility and openness. For researchers and civil society to identify scams, coordinated information operations, hybrid threat campaigns, and phony ads, accessible and searchable ad libraries are essential.
The goal of ad repositories is undermined by X’s design elements and access restrictions, such as significant processing latency. Important details like the advertisement’s theme and content, as well as the legal organization funding it, are also absent from X’s advertisements repository. This makes it more difficult for the public and scholars to examine any potential dangers associated with online advertising independently.
The types of these violations, their seriousness to affected EU users, and their duration were all taken into consideration when calculating the fine imposed today. X now has sixty working days to notify the Commission of the precise steps it plans to take to stop the deceptive use of blue checkmarks in violation of Article 25 (1) DSA.
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