The EU Is Coming for X’s Paid Blue Checks

Paid-for blue checks connected societal media web X deceive users and are abused by malicious actors, the European Union said today, threatening the Elon Musk–owned level with millions of dollars successful fines unless the institution makes changes.

Enabling immoderate relationship to wage for a verification breaches the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), European Commission officials said connected Friday, due to the fact that it “negatively affects users’ quality to marque escaped and informed decisions astir the authenticity of the accounts.” X present has a accidental to respond to the findings. If Musk cannot scope a solution with the EU, the institution faces fines of up to 6 percent of its planetary yearly turnover.

Blue checks, which look adjacent to relationship names of X Premium subscribers, person been the taxable of contention since Musk acquired the level in 2022. “Back successful the day, bluish checks utilized to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary presumption is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA,” EU interior marketplace commissioner Thierry Breton said successful a statement. “X has present the close of defense—but if our presumption is confirmed we volition enforce fines and necessitate important changes.”

X did not reply to WIRED’s petition for comment.

Before Musk took implicit X, formerly known arsenic Twitter, bluish checks were utilized to verify the individuality of influential accounts, ranging from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to personage Kim Kardashian. Approved by Twitter staff, bluish checks were besides communal among progressive researchers and journalists, signaling that they were reliable sources of information.

Supporters of that strategy argued it helped users place trustworthy voices, portion limiting scammers and impersonators. But Musk decried the statement arsenic elitist and “corrupt to the core.” The quality to bargain a bluish tick for $8 per period was, helium said, an antidote to “Twitter’s existent lords & peasants” set-up. “Power to the people!” helium posted, arsenic helium announced the caller subscriber model.

Yet aft a drawstring of scandals—NBA prima LeBron James was among high-profile figures targeted by impersonator accounts with paid-for bluish checks—X introduced a much analyzable color-coded strategy that Musk described arsenic “painful, but necessary.” Verified companies tin get golden checks, grey checks spell to governments, and successful April 2024 users considered “influential” had their bluish checks restored for free.

Despite those changes, the EU said connected Friday that X’s verification strategy does not correspond with manufacture practice. Officials besides claimed X does not comply with section rules connected advertizing transparency and fails to springiness researchers capable entree to its nationalist data, utilizing methods specified arsenic scraping. The fees for entree to X’s API—enterprise packages commencement astatine $42,000 per month—either dissuades researchers from carrying retired projects oregon forces them to wage disproportionately precocious fees, the Commission said. “In our view, X doesn’t comply with the DSA successful cardinal transparency areas,” EU contention main Margrethe Vestager said in a station connected X, adding this was the archetypal clip a institution had been charged with “preliminary findings” nether the Digital Services Act.

The X reprimand is the latest successful a flurry issued to large tech companies by the Commission, arsenic European regulators leverage caller rules designed to curb tech giants’ marketplace powerfulness and amended the mode they operate. The EU gave nary deadline for X to respond to its findings.

In the past month, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta person each been accused of breaking EU rules. Meta and Apple indispensable resoluteness their cases earlier March 2025 to debar fines. Yesterday, Apple said it would marque its Tap and Go wallet exertion available to rivals successful its latest concession to section regulator demands.