EU rules X violates Digital Services Act, Musk: We refuse to introduce review system

The European Commission announced the preliminary results of its investigation into X, the former Twitter, finding X guilty of three violations of the Digital Services Act. X could face a penalty of up to 6% of its annual turnover. In response, X's Chairman Elon Musk stated that this is because X refused to comply with the EU's secret agreement on audit procedures.

What is the "Digital Services Act"?

The European Parliament passed the Digital Services Act (DSA) on January 20, 2022, aiming to regulate online service providers and provide a safer online space for users.

The Act provides clear guidelines for platforms on handling illegal content, algorithms, and advertising, with strict penalties for platforms that violate the regulations. Particularly for "Very Large Online Platforms" (VLOPs) with over 45 million monthly active users, intentional or negligent violations of obligations can result in fines of up to 6% of the total turnover for the previous financial year, or daily fines of up to 5% of the average daily turnover for the previous financial year.

EU Commission Identifies Three Non-Compliant Behaviors by X

The EU Commission announced the preliminary investigation results on X (formerly Twitter), identifying three non-compliant behaviors:

• X designed and operated "verified accounts" with a "blue checkmark" in a manner that deviates from industry standards, misleading users. Evidence suggests that malicious actors abuse "verified accounts" to deceive users since anyone can subscribe to obtain this "verified" status.
• X fails to meet advertising transparency requirements by not providing a searchable and reliable advertising database, which hinders necessary supervision and research on new risks posed by online advertising.
• X fails to provide researchers with access to its public data as required by the DSA. In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as through the scraping method specified in its terms of service. Furthermore, X's process for granting eligible researchers access to its application programming interface (API) appears to impede researchers from conducting projects or forces them to pay disproportionately high fees.

Musk: X Rejects Secret Agreement with EU on Review System

In response, X Chairman Elon Musk stated:

The EU Commission proposed an illegal secret agreement—no fines for 𝕏 if we quietly review speech without telling anyone. Other platforms accepted this deal, but 𝕏 did not.

Musk also expressed his anticipation for a public battle in court to let the European people know the truth. Regarding the mention of "researchers" in the third point, he also agreed with Mike Benz's viewpoint:

They are censors and political operatives. They plan to use the DSA to force X to reassemble the review team that was fired after Musk took over.