EU Accuses Elon Musk’s X Of Misleading Users

European regulators have charged Elon Musk’s X with violating the wide Digital Services Act, accusing the company of deceiving its consumers, among other things.

“Today, we issue, for the first time, preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act,” Margrethe Vestager, a top official at the European Commission, said in a statement Friday. “In our view, X does not comply with the DSA in key transparency areas, by using dark patterns and thus misleading users, by failing to provide an adequate ad repository, and by blocking access to data for researchers.”

The company’s approach to so-called verified accounts “does not correspond to industry practice and deceives users,” the European Union’s executive arm said. Anyone can subscribe to gain the “verified” status, it stated, and it cited examples of “malicious actors” utilizing the blue check “to deceive users.”

EU Accuses Elon Musk’s X Of Misleading Users

If the Commission’s preliminary findings are verified, X might face a fine of up to 6% of its global annual turnover.

X has yet to react to CNN’s request for comment.

“Back in the day, blue checks used to mean trustworthy sources of information,” Thierry Breton, another senior Commission official, said in the Friday statement. “Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA.”

The law took effect in August. Among other things, it prohibits the use of “dark patterns” or subtle design hints that may be designed to persuade users to disclose personal information or make other decisions that the corporation prefers. Consumer organizations frequently mention an example where a firm tries to persuade a user to opt into tracking by displaying an acceptance button in bright colors while downplaying the option to opt-out by reducing the font size or positioning.

EU Accuses Elon Musk’s X Of Misleading Users

The results are the outcome of an ongoing inquiry by EU officials that began in December. As part of the investigation, EU officials are also looking into X’s content moderation policies to determine whether the firm violated the DSA by disseminating illegal content and failing to combat misinformation.

The formal inquiry was launched after EU officials began questioning X early last year, citing rising worries over the prevalence of Hamas-affiliated accounts on the platform following the terror group’s October 7 bombings on Israel.

SOURCE | CNN