The European Commission (EC) announced its decision today following its investigation into X, launched in 2024. The Commission fined the social network €120 million (approximately $140 million), finding that the platform’s blue tick practice was “deceptive.”

€120 Million Fine!

According to the EC, while a blue tick may give the impression that a user is verified, the fact that anyone can pay to obtain this status “without any meaningful verification by the company of the person behind the account” constitutes a deceptive design. This violates the EU’s obligation under the Digital Services Act (DSA) for online platforms to “prohibit deceptive design practices in their services.”

The fine was also imposed because X’s advertising pool “failed to meet the transparency and accessibility requirements” of the DSA, according to the EC’s press release. The EC stated that accessible and searchable ad repositories are critical for researchers and civil society to detect scams, hybrid threat campaigns, and fake ads. The Commission stated that X’s ad repository contained “design features and access barriers, such as excessive delays,” which undermined its purpose and omitted critical information such as the ad’s content, subject matter, and the legal entity making the payment.

Finally, X was found to have failed to fulfill another requirement of the DSA: providing researchers with access to publicly available data. X’s terms of service prohibit eligible researchers from independently accessing publicly available data, including through scraping. The EC stated that X’s access processes “impose unnecessary barriers and effectively undermine research into various systemic risks in the EU.”

X has 60 business days to notify the Council of Europe of the “specific measures” it plans to take to end the blue tick violation, and 90 days to submit its action plan regarding the advertising pool and access to public data to researchers.

The Council of Europe’s Digital Services Board will comment on X’s action plan within one month of receiving it. The Council of Europe will then have another month to make its final decision, “setting a reasonable implementation period.”