The EU Commission has announced that it has sent preliminary findings in its investigation into the platform X (formerly Twitter) that it has violated the Digital Services Act (DSA). The Commission has sent X its preliminary opinion that it has violated EU law in the areas of dark models, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.
The statement noted that content moderation, transparency and accountability in advertising are at the heart of EU digital rules. It was stated that the investigation found evidence that the blue checkmark of the X platform was designed and operated in a way that misled users and that it was used by malicious actors.
The statement emphasized that X did not provide the necessary transparency regarding advertising and did not provide researchers with access to publicly available data.
EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton stated that their preliminary view on X was that users had decided and EU digital rules were violated, and that X had the right to defend itself, but if their views were confirmed, they would impose a fine and demand significant changes in practice.
The EU law, which came into effect last year, imposed strict rules on large digital platforms. The EU can impose finesse of up to 6% of global turnover on digital platforms that violate the rules. In the event of repeated violations, the digital platforms in question can have their operations in the EU terminated.
