• by Colin Kirkland , 3 hours ago

The European Commission issued a €120 million fine to X — its first fine issued under the Digital Services Act (DSA) following prior allegations.

Following the fine and a public response from X CEO Elon Musk, X shut down the Commission’s ad account.

On Friday, the Commission fined X for “non-compliance with transparency obligations under the DSA,” holding the social media company accountable for “deceptive design of its 'blue checkmark', a “lack of transparency” with regard to its advertising repository and a “failure to provide access to public data for researchers.”

The fine comes more than a year after EU regulators published preliminary findings on the matter, announcing in July 2024 that X's blue check verification system dupes the platform's users and violates European law.

Before Musk took over X — formerly Twitter — in October 2022, blue checkmarks were assigned to accounts with large followings and provided proof of identity.

However, Musk rolled out a paid system, allowing any user to purchase blue checkmarks for a monthly price, which has resulted in the verification of fake accounts.

In response to these original allegations, Musk posted on X that his company looks forward to “a very public battle in court.”

Now, in response to the Commission’s official fine -- which amounts to about $140 million -- Musk posted “Bullshit.”

One day after the fine was announced, X’s head of product Nikita Bier posted on X, informing the Commission that its X ad account has been terminated.

“The irony of your announcement: You logged into your dormant ad account to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer — to post a link that deceives users into thinking it's a video and to artificially increase its reach,” Bier wrote, claiming that the Commission had not used its ad account since 2021.

In reference to X's Ad Composer tool, a Commission spokesperson told TechCrunch on Monday that it “always uses all social media platforms in good faith” and is “using the tools that platforms themselves are making available to our corporate accounts.”

The spokesperson added that the Commission suspended its paid advertising on X over two years ago.

Blocking the EU's ad account on X will not change the social-media company's options in responding legally to the DSA violation.

he company can appeal the decision, but must still pay the large fine.

Over the next 60 days, X must also inform the Commission how it plans to address the alleged deception inherent to its current checkmark verification system, or face additional penalties.