It's so his white supremacist buddies can post more drivel and propaganda without fear of it being banned mainly. Unmitigated boer behavior.
Twitter Blue is $7.99.. Who copping a blue check
- Thread starter goatmane
- Start date
It's so his white supremacist buddies can post more drivel and propaganda without fear of it being banned mainly. Unmitigated boer behavior.
BK The Great
Veteran
That entire app is a shyt show. Too much capping and spreading bullshyt false info most of the time.
Maybe $1,000 per month was too expensive.
X (formerly Twitter) now has a “basic” tier for Verified Organizations, which gets you a gold checkmark badge (and a few other benefits) for $200 per month instead of $1,000 per month for “full access.” While X claims this new tier is “designed for smaller businesses,” the more affordable plan...
www.theverge.com
Maybe $1,000 per month was too expensive.
X (formerly Twitter) now has a “basic” tier for Verified Organizations, which gets you a gold checkmark badge (and a few other benefits) for $200 per month instead of $1,000 per month for “full access.”
While X claims this new tier is “designed for smaller businesses,” the more affordable plan is perhaps an admission that not enough businesses are paying for the more expensive plan.
Blue checks on X are bad now, EU says
What a tangled web Elon weaves, now his blue checks can deceive.
mashable.com
Blue checks on X are bad now, EU says
What a tangled web Elon weaves, now his blue checks can deceive.By Chris Taylor on July 12, 2024
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The most deceptive bluecheck of all? Credit: Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Watch out, Elon Musk: The European Union is coming for your blue check brigade.
"Back in the day, blue checks used to mean trustworthy sources of information," EU commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted Friday. "Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users."
Breton added that this deception infringes the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU's powerful 2022 law that governs content moderation on social media. Musk's company would have the right to defend itself, but the EU will impose "fines" and force "significant changes" if its preliminary findings are confirmed.
Prior to Musk's purchase of Twitter, blue checks were indeed added to accounts as a mark of expertise in various fields, or to accounts that ran a risk of being impersonated. Musk replaced that system by simply giving blue checks to any account that paid the company an $8 (or more) monthly fee, calling it "power to the people." Paid accounts would be prioritized in replies.
SEE ALSO: Musk tanked Twitter in 12 months. Let that sink in.
Result: months of absolute confusion as paid accounts trolled corporate accounts and impersonated celebrities (including Musk himself).
Musk soon added the ability to hide your bluecheck — hardly a vote of confidence in the system — and started personally paying for bluechecks on major accounts (including Mashable's Matt Binder) that didn't want the mark anymore.
For many Twitter users, the bluecheck has become a mark of derision, with major accounts such as @dril launching a campaign earlier this year to "block the blue."
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's 6 dumbest X / Twitter decisions of 2023
Tumblr, meanwhile, parodied Musk's change with its "entirely pointless" system that gave buyers "important blue internet marks" for the low, low price of $7.99 a month.
This isn't the first time Thierry Breton and Musk have butted heads over the DSA. The EU is already investigating whether X is in breach of the act for failing to counter illegal content (such as its growing plethora of porn bots), disinformation (which is exploding in wartime), and "deceptive design."
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Musk fired back by reportedly threatening to remove the service from Europe altogether, but has so far failed to do so. Europe accounts for nearly 10% of the company's user base.
Predictably, paid-account blue checks (which tend to support Musk) swarmed Breton's replies. One made reference to guillotines; others suggested freedom of expression would be infringed by any attack on the blue checks.
Much lower down, the non-paid X replies were more sympathetic. "The fines should be large enough so that Space Karen stops playing funny games," said one. As of this year, the EU commission can issue fines equal to 6% of a company's worldwide turnover, though no such sanctions have yet been collected.
They'll have to make changes, the EU don't play when it comes to protecting consumers. They made Apple bend the knee on USB-C.
Richard Glidewell
Superstar
Once this shyt hit 10 dollars imma cop a thousand shares just cause....... nothing but ill will toward the deserving
PRESS RELEASE 12 July 2024 Brussels 3 min read
Commission sends preliminary findings to X for breach of the Digital Services Act
Page contentsToday, the Commission has informed X of its preliminary view that it is in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.
Transparency and accountability in relation to content moderation and advertising are at the heart of the DSA. Based on an in-depth investigation that included, among others, the analysis of internal company documents, interviews with experts, as well as cooperation with national Digital Services Coordinators, the Commission has issued preliminary findings of non-compliance on three grievances:
- First, X designs and operates its interface for the “verified accounts” with the “Blue checkmark” in a way that does not correspond to industry practice and deceives users. Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a “verified” status, it negatively affects users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with. There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the “verified account” to deceive users.
- Second, X does not comply with the required transparency on advertising, as it does not provide a searchable and reliable advertisement repository, but instead put in place design features and access barriers that make the repository unfit for its transparency purpose towards users. In particular, the design does not allow for the required supervision and research into emerging risks brought about by the distribution of advertising online.
- Third, X fails to provide access to its public data to researchers in line with the conditions set out in the DSA. In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as by scraping, as stated in its terms of service. In addition, X's process to grant eligible researchers access to its application programming interface (API) appears to dissuade researchers from carrying out their research projects or leave them with no other choice than to pay disproportionally high fees.
By sending preliminary findings, the Commission informs X of its preliminary view that it is in breach of the DSA. This is without prejudice to the outcome of the investigation as X now has the possibility to exercise its rights of defence by examining the documents in the Commission's investigation file and by replying in writing to the Commission's preliminary findings. In parallel, the European Board for Digital Services will be consulted.
If the Commission's preliminary views were to be ultimately confirmed, the Commission would adopt a non-compliance decision finding that X is in breach of Articles 25, 39 and 40(12) of the DSA. Such a decision could entail fines of up to 6% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider, and order the provider to take measures to address the breach. A non-compliance decision may also trigger an enhanced supervision period to ensure compliance with the measures the provider intends to take to remedy the breach. The Commission can also impose periodic penalty payments to compel a platform to comply.
Background
X, formerly known as Twitter, has been designated as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) on 25 April 2023 under the EU's Digital Services Act, following its declaration of reaching more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU.On 18 December 2023, the Commission opened formal proceedings to assess whether X may have breached the Digital Services Act in areas linked to the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat information manipulation, for which the investigation continues, as well as dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers, which are subject of the preliminary findings adopted today.
The Commission has also put in place a whistleblower tool, allowing employees and other people with knowledge to contact the Commission in an anonymous way to contribute to the Commission's monitoring of compliance by designated VLOPs/VLOSEs.
The Commission has also opened formal proceedings against TikTok in February and April 2024, AliExpress in March 2024, and Meta in April and May 2024.
Quote(s)
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age
Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market