EU Charges Elon Musk’s X with Misleading Users

European regulators have accused Elon Musk’s platform X of violating the Digital Services Act (DSA), alleging that the platform misled users, among other breaches.

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

The statement from the European Union’s executive arm added that the company’s handling of verified accounts deviates from industry norms and misleads users. It noted that anyone can subscribe to obtain the “verified” status and cited evidence of “malicious actors” abusing the blue check “to deceive users.”

If these preliminary findings are confirmed, X could face a fine of up to 6% of its global annual turnover.

X has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment.

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

The DSA, which came into effect in August, bans practices known as “dark patterns,” where companies use subtle design cues to nudge consumers to give up their personal data or make other decisions favorable to the company. An example is highlighting an acceptance button in bright colors while minimizing the opt-out option’s font size or placement.

These findings stem from an ongoing investigation by EU regulators launched in December. As part of this probe, regulators are also examining X’s content moderation practices to see if the company has breached the DSA by disseminating illegal content and failing to combat misinformation.

The formal investigation was initiated after EU officials raised concerns about the presence of Hamas-affiliated accounts on the platform following the terror group’s October 7 attacks against Israel.