LONDON -- European Union regulators on Friday fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X 120 million euros ($140 million) for breaches of the bloc’s digital regulations that they said could leave users exposed to scams and manipulation.The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened two years ago into X under the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Services Act, also known as the DSA.EU regulators had already outlined their accusations in mid-2024 when they released preliminary findings of their investigation into X.Regulators said X’s blue checkmarks broke the rules because on “deceptive design practices” and could expose users to scams and manipulation.
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“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU.The DSA protects users," Henna Virkkunen, the EU's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a prepared statement.
