EU fines X $140m, tied to verification rules that make impostor scams easier

The European Commission fined X (formerly Twitter) €120 million under the EU’s Digital Services Act for enabling paid “verified” checkmarks without meaningful identity verification, restricting researcher access to public data, and lacking transparency in its advertising repository. The report notes real-world harms from impersonation enabled by weak verification, references ongoing DSA-related probes, and outlines compliance timelines (60 days for checkmark issues, 90 days for ads and researcher access), while warning users not to assume authenticity from blue-check accounts.