EU Fines X €120M for Digital Services Act Breaches

The European Commission fined social media platform X 120 million euros on Friday for breaching transparency requirements under the bloc's Digital Services Act, marking the first penalty issued under the 2022 law aimed at regulating online platforms.

The violations centered on X's blue checkmark verification system, which regulators described as deceptive following its shift to a paid model. Officials stated that the design exposed users to risks of impersonation and scams by misleading them about account authenticity. Additional issues included insufficient transparency in X's advertising repository, which failed to meet accessibility standards, and restrictions on researchers' access to public data. The Commission calculated the penalty based on the breaches' nature, duration, recurrence, and gravity, noting that it targeted X's corporate structure, including its Irish subsidiary and related entities such as X Holdings Corp. X must submit a plan to address the checkmark concerns within 60 days and the advertising issues within 90 days, or risk further fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover.

X owner Elon Musk reacted swiftly to the announcement, posting on the...