The X verification system is now at the center of the company’s EU compliance response after regulators fined the platform €120 million in December 2025 under the Digital Services Act. The European Commission said the case marked its first non-compliance decision under the DSA and tied the penalty to three transparency failures: the design of the blue checkmark, gaps in the ad repository, and barriers for researchers seeking access to public data.
According to the Commission, the blue checkmark became misleading because users could pay for “verified” status without meaningful confirmation of identity. Regulators said that made it harder for people to judge whether an account or post was authentic and increased exposure to scams, including impersonation fraud.
The ad transparency findings also mattered. The Commission said X’s repository lacked required accessibility and omitted key information, including ad content or topic and the legal entity paying for the ad. It also said eligible researchers faced unnecessary obstacles to public data access.
The immediate movement, however, is around the X verification system. Reporting published on March 12, 2026 said X has agreed to change that mechanism in the EU and has already submitted remedies, which the Commission is now assessing.
