EU takes Elon Musk's X to court over blue checks and ads

The European Union brought its first charges under a new social media law on Friday, accusing Elon Musk’s X of violating the regulation by deceiving users and not living up to transparency requirements.

European regulators say when Musk relaunched the blue check “verification” system after he purchased Twitter in late 2022, he allowed anyone to pay for the once-coveted badge. That led to the platform becoming flooded with spoof accounts, impersonators and a glut of misleading information.

“It negatively affects users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with,” the commission wrote in its findings. “There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the ‘verified account’ to deceive users.”