Musk’s X submits remedies relating to its blue check mark, EU spokesperson says

March 13 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s social media platform X has submitted remedies in relation to its blue checkmark verification feature following a fine of 120 million euros ($137.63 million), a European Commission spokesperson said on Friday.

EU tech regulators fined X in December for breaching online content rules, the first such action under a landmark legislation that drew criticism from the U.S. government.

Here are the details:

* The Commission will now carefully assess the proposedremedies, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier added,without giving details. * X did not immediately respond to Reuters requests forcomment. * The EU action against X had followed a two-year-longinvestigation under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), whichrequires online platforms to do more to tackle illegal andharmful content. * The European Commission in July 2024 had charged X withdeceiving users, saying that the blue checkmark does notcorrespond to industry practices and that anyone can pay to geta “verified” status. * Bloomberg News first reported on Thursday that X hasagreed to change its verification mechanism in the EuropeanUnion. * The blue checkmark had previously indicated that anaccount belonged to a public figure whose identity was verified,but Musk changed it to indicate it belonged to a paid subscriberafter acquiring X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022.

($1 = 0.8719 euros)

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Angela Christy; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Harikrishnan Nair)