Elon "Ultimate Douchebag" Musk has been warned by the European Union (EU) that he's facing potentially large fines after regulators said its blue-checkmark system for users is "deceptive and in breach of its landmark social media rules."
The Guardian reports that The EU’s executive arm said Musk's Twitter (they can call it X, I never will) had breached the Digital Services Act, or DSA, which was written to "create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected."
Musk violated the DSA in three areas, according to the EU: "deceiving users by giving blue checks – previously a way to verify an account’s reliability as well as the user's true identity – to untrustworthy accounts; failing to give researchers access to publicly available data such as posts; and running an inadequate advertising library, which prevents researchers from scrutinizing ads, including deliberately misleading ones, on the platform."
The EU claims the new policy created "bad actors" intent on spreading misinformation.
If only everyone had warned everyone else that letting Elon buy Twitter with Putin's money was a bad idea, huh?
While the commission is still investigating whether Twitter breached the DSA, it has also opened additional investigations into Meta/Facebook and TikTok.
Thierry Breton, a key figure behind the act as the EU’s commissioner for internal markets, said: “Back in the day, blue checks used to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA.”
Breton said Twitter had the right to respond but “if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes”.
And respond Elon did, in his typical douchebag way.
"We look forward to a very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth," Musk tweeted.