Elon Musk's X fined €120m over 'deceptive' blue ticks
"This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors," it said .
The European Commission said by allowing people to pay for a blue verified check mark on their profile, the platform "deceives users" because the firm is not "meaningfully verifying" who is behind the account.
Elon Musk's social media platform X has been fined €120m (£105m) by the EU over its blue tick badges - despite US warnings about doing so.
US Vice President JD Vance lashed out at the EU amid rumours of its forthcoming fine on Thursday - claiming it was being punished "for not engaging in censorship".
"The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage," he said.
In addition to taking issue at its use of blue ticks, EU regulators said X was also failing to provide transparency around its adverts, and it was not giving researchers access to public data.
"The fine issued today was calculated taking into account the nature of these infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users, and their duration," the Commission said.
Henna Virkkunen, the regulator's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said it was "holding X responsible for undermining users' rights and evading accountability".
"Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU," she said.
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