Elon Musk’s X has offered to make changes to its blue checkmark for “verified” accounts, a European Commission spokesman said, after the platform received a €120 million fine. The European Union slapped the fine on X, formerly Twitter, in December for breaking its digital rules—including through the “deceptive design” of its blue checkmark.
According to EU spokesman for digital affairs Thomas Regnier,
X has submitted remedies in relation to its blue checkmark. The commission will now carefully assess the proposed remedies.
Blue checkmarks, long offered free of charge at the social media platform, were intended to signal the identity of certain users—such as celebrities, journalists and politicians—had been verified in an effort to build trust in the platform. But after Musk bought the platform, he allowed users to pay to obtain one.
In February this year, X announced it had filed an appeal with the EU’s top court against the fine, which was the first ever under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA). But Regnier said the commission still expected X to pay up by March 16th, and to provide further remedies on other breaches by April 28th.
