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Twitter recently made it possible to get a verification check added to an account by just paying 8 dollars, causing a rash of fake 'verified' accounts. One of these accounts was for Eli Lilly, a company that provides life saving medication at generally high prices. The fake account claimed that Eli Lily would be providing insulin to everyone for free, a tweet that got spread virally and which lead to a very noticeable drop in stock price for the real company.

The news has implied Twitter would face serious repercussions for this, but I'm curious what their actual legal status is. I thought the law protected social media providers from what their users said, is the fact that Twitter allowed a verified check somehow make twitter more liable? Could Eli Lilly actually sue Twitter for enabling their customer to do something harmful like this?

Separate from the risk of being sued I believe twitter is under at least two orders from the FTC that may have been violated and thus may lead to penalties?

Basically what is Twitter actual liability for this tweet, and what are the odds of actual financial cost to twitter-in terms of penalties and fees not loss of customer or advertisers- as a result of this tweet? How much could they face to lose?

Heddy
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dsollen
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1 Answers1

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In July 2024, under the Digital Services Act, the charged X (formerly Twitter) with deceiving users using its blue checkmark. According to Reuters, the legal penalty could be a fine of up to 6% of their global turnover.

The European Commission case relies on two points. They argue that the blue checkmark verification process:

  1. Negatively affects users' ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts they interact with; and
  2. Does not align with industry practice

This is only one of the charges brought against X. The others include blocking researchers from accessing its public data and failing to provide accessible advertisement information for easy access).

However, it is worth noting that these charges have been disputed. In fact, Elon Musk said on X: "We look forward to a very public battle in court". Whether or not these charges hold up is another question and we are yet to see Musk's defence against them.

FD_bfa
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