EU fines X $140 million over ‘deceptive’ blue checkmarks

The European Union has served Elon Musk’s X with a €120 million (about $140 million) punishment for violating the bloc’s integer work rulebook, successful portion for the “deceptive design” of its bluish checkmark. Today’s announcement marks the archetypal clip that a institution has been fined nether the landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) instrumentality for curbing “illegal and harmful activities” connected online platforms, and follows the EU launching a multifaceted probe into X successful December 2023.

In July 2024, the EU ruled that X was failing to comply with obligations astir advertizing transparency, information entree for researchers, and “dark patterns” — deceptive interface features designed to instrumentality users. X’s bluish checkmark strategy was specifically called retired for deceiving users by allowing anyone to wage to beryllium “verified,” making it harder to find the authenticity of X accounts. In today’s announcement, the European Commission noted that portion the DSA doesn’t necessitate idiosyncratic verification, “it intelligibly prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users person been verified.”

“Deceiving users with bluish checkmarks, obscuring accusation connected ads and shutting retired researchers person nary spot online successful the EU,” the bloc’s tech main Henna Virkkunen said successful a statement. “The DSA protects users. The DSA gives researchers the mode to uncover imaginable threats. The DSA restores spot successful the online environment. With the DSA’s archetypal non-compliance decision, we are holding X liable for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability.”

The EU tin complaint companies up to 6 percent of their planetary gross for DSA violations. As X is simply a backstage institution — purchased by Musk for $44 cardinal successful October 2022 and again by his artificial quality company, X AI, successful March 2025 for $33 billion — it’s unclear what its imaginable maximum punishment could person been. X tin entreaty the fine, but present has 60 moving days to pass the EU of the measures it volition instrumentality to alteration the “deceptive” usage of bluish checkmarks, and 90 days for its planned fixes for the different violations. Failure to conscionable those deadlines could effect successful much punishment payments.

European lawmakers had deliberated however ample a good to contented according to The New York Times, reporting that regulators sought to marque an illustration of X arsenic a informing to different companies portion weighing the risks of sparking retaliation from President Donald Trump amid ongoing commercialized disputes. Musk, alongside the enactment of other US tech giants, has encouraged the president to stop the EU from taking vantage of US companies.

The 2023 probe was besides launched to scrutinize X’s moderation practices and the dissemination of amerciable oregon harmful contented connected the platform, which is presently inactive ongoing and could incur further penalties.

The EU has criticized X implicit rising levels of disinformation pursuing its acquisition by Musk. In January, EU lawmakers pledged to “energetically” propulsion the X probe forward implicit concerns with Musk’s promotion of Germany’s far-right enactment person connected the platform. Musk has utilized X to rally down other far-right personalities and sparked outrage aft pulling a arguable gesture during his code astatine Trump’s inauguration.