Selling X verification as a subscription is illegal, says the EU

While Twitter verification was intended to confirm the identity of public figures, X verification is available to anyone who takes out a paid subscription to the service – and the European Union has decided that breaks the law …

The sad history of X verification

When billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44B, he made a series of changes that saw advertisers pause or greatly reduce their spend on the platform. One big change was that Twitter verification would be available for sale as part of a Twitter Blue subscription.

Musk was forced to rethink the move after it created open season for trolls, pranksters, and scammers, but it was later relaunched.

For a while, actual verified Twitter accounts retained their blue checkmarks, but those were removed last year – at which point having one became a badge of shame, as it showed you’d paid for it. The most enthusiastic customers were cryptocurrency scammers taking advantage of the boosted visibility of paid accounts to commit their frauds.

Selling verification is illegal

The EU’s Digital Services Act places a number of obligations on social media companies, one of which is to take steps to avoid users being deceived by fake content.

The Financial Times reports that selling X verification breaches the DSA.

In preliminary findings from an investigation that began last year, the EU said a decision following Musk’s $44bn takeover of the company two years ago, to allow anyone to pay to gain a blue checkmark, would deceive millions of users.

“Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a ‘verified’ status, it negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with,” said regulators in Brussels.

X can appeal the finding, but if the appeal fails, it can be fined up to 6% of its annual global turnover.

Photo by ilgmyzin on Unsplash