(Finance) – Today the Commission informed Xformerly of Twitter, of its preliminary opinion that violates the Digital Services Act (DSA) in sectors related to dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers. According to Brussels, X is operating with deceptive interfaces, showing little transparency in advertising and offering a inadequate access to data for researchers.
In an official statement, the Commission indicated that Verified accounts on Xmarked with the blue check markdo not follow industry standard practices and they deceive users. This is because anyone can subscribe to obtain this “verified” status, thus creating an opportunity for malicious people to abuse this privilege to deceive other users.
The investigation also revealed that X does not comply with the advertising transparency requirements established by the DSA. The platform does not provide a searchable and reliable advertising archiveplacing barriers that prevent adequate surveillance and research into emerging risks arising from online advertising.
Another critical point is access to data for researchers. X prevents independent access to its public data and discourages researchers through restrictive policies and high costs for using its API, in violation of the provisions of the DSA.
Elon Musk he promptly responded to the accusations with a message on X, defining the DSA “disinformation”. In his sharp response, Musk addressed directly to the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, formally contesting the accusations made against his platform.
If the violations are confirmed, X could face fines of up to 6% of annual global turnover and a period of enhanced surveillance to ensure future compliance.