European Union: Issued European Commission’s preliminary findings following investigation into X, formerly Twitter, compliance with DSA requirements to address illegal content and disinformation

On 12 July 2024, the European Commission sent its preliminary findings to X, indicating that it is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in practices related to dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers. In particular, the Commission's initial assessment suggests that X’s interface for “verified accounts” may deceive users by affecting their ability to make informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with. In addition, the Commission is of the view that X breaches de DSA’s requirements for transparency on advertising, as it does not provide an adequate advertisement repository. Finally, the Commission has found that X prevents researchers from independently accessing its public data and that its application programming interface (API) dissuades researchers from carrying out their projects or requires them to pay high fees.