2024-07-13 07:03:02
The EU Commission is once again taking aim at a large US company. Elon Musk’s Platform X is now facing a huge fine.
According to the EU Commission’s preliminary assessment, US entrepreneur Elon Musk is violating EU law with his online platform X. The company is therefore facing a high fine, the Brussels authority announced. According to the Commission, the design of the online platform X can mislead users. Specifically, the Commission accuses X (formerly Twitter) of the way in which user accounts are verified that could lead to other users of the platform being misled because anyone can get a “verified” account.
This is the first time that the EU Commission has published preliminary investigation results under a new EU law on digital services (DSA). X can now respond to the allegations. The Commission stresses that the results it presented today are not yet final.
At Twitter, the white and blue checkmark symbols for verification were previously awarded to celebrities, politicians and public figures after an examination by the company. This is also common practice on other online services. Musk, on the other hand, introduced a system in which all subscription customers receive checkmarks that look the same as before. There was a lot of trouble, especially immediately after the change, because fake accounts of companies and celebrities suddenly appeared real.
The Commission has now announced that there are indications that malicious actors are abusing such supposedly verified accounts on X to deceive other users.
Online platforms have had to comply with much stricter rules for some time now because of the DSA. Among other things, this includes ensuring greater transparency in advertising and granting researchers access to certain data. According to the EU Commission’s preliminary opinion, X violates the DSA on both points. Investigations are also underway against other large online platforms based on the DSA.
If the Commission’s preliminary opinion is confirmed, the EU Commission can impose a fine of up to six percent of the company’s annual global turnover. Legal action could be taken against the decision. Only estimates are known about X’s current turnover.
Since Musk bought the predecessor service Twitter in October 2022 and took it off the stock exchange, no figures have to be presented. Details of the deal have only come to light in fragments. The financial service Bloomberg recently wrote that in the first half of 2023, revenues fell 40 percent year-on-year to $1.48 billion.
X has also long been criticized for not taking decisive enough action against false information and hate speech on the platform. The DSA also obliges companies to take strict action against illegal content such as hate speech and incitement on the Internet. Elon Musk has always stressed that he wants to remove what he sees as excessive restrictions on freedom of expression on the platform.
The EU Commission has already sent X a list of questions after there were numerous indications of illegal and misleading posts on the platform about the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel. Since the questions were apparently not answered to the satisfaction of the EU Commission, proceedings were opened against X. These are continuing regardless of the preliminary results presented today.