EU officials say X’s paid-for blue check deceives users and breaks law The European Commission says the blue checkmark system used by micro-blogging platform X — formerly Twitter — effectively deceives users and fails to comply with the newly introduced Digital Service Act (DSA). In preliminary findings, the Commission — an executive branch of the European Union — found that the way X had …
“A normal user will not be aware that the priority replies are coming from accounts that are not necessarily trustworthy and unreliable. You can buy yourself into prioritization by buying blue checkmarks, and we think this is misleading.” [my emphasis]
Fox would be the opposite, reliably untrustworthy
The EU is a collection of institutions charged by the member states with enforcing the laws of the Union. While it's oftern termed the EU's government this is incorrect as it's a closer to a civil service. It does enjoy some perogatives, such as the ability to negotiate trade deals, but all treaties must be endorsed by the member states.
Charlie Clark,
I think it's reaonsable to call the European Commission the executive. Admittedly the EU is an odd organisation, so nothing quite fits. But it's in charge of running departments and spending budgets (although a lot of its budget is actually spent in member countries jointly with their own governments). It also has exclusive competences, such as trade or the Single Market, where the Commission - where it does make the decisions. As you say, it can make trade deals. So long as they only relate to trade, then they member states don't get a say. It can also pass Regulations - which are laws passed by the Commission alone in its areas of sole competence.
It's a bit more than a civil service. After all it has Commissioners (political appointees) who have departments that are almost ministries. They're much more like US cabinet ministers than say British ones.
On the other hand you've also got the European Council (heads of government) and the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers) - which are other components of the EU that sometimes (often) compete for power with the Commission. And then the weird legislation system where for EU Directives (model legislation that the states must enact into compatible laws) - they can only be initiated by the Commission but are voted on by Parliament and drafted in Trilogues (meetings between Commission, Parliamentary leaders and Council of Ministers).
Exactly, it is a bureaucracy with additional powers – similar to a US government agency perhaps – but this is a long way from being an executive. It takes its instructions from the member states when it is not doing what is defined in the treaties.
"Side note: The US cabinet has Secretaries, not ministers. That is all."
Well, someone has to sit there filing their nails all day and looking pretty while nothing gets done!
(The 1970's called and asked for their stereotype joke to be returned)
The root problem is that much of its activity, including its appointment of Commissioners, is not accountable - democratically or otherwise. There are areas where the Council of Ministers can smack it down, and there are areas where they cannot. There are few if any where the European Parliament can do more than whine pathetically. For those areas where the Commission has authority, it is indeed the EU Government.
But this news item is really about EU law. The EU Court of Justice (not to be confused with the European Court of Human Justice) is an independent body whose judges are appointed by agreement of the member states. One of its chief functions is to keep the governmental institutions in check. So even the Commission is not entirely above the law. Nor is X.
Every piece of news on the heinous actions of big tech ends with a variation of that text... Can it really happen? Will it really happen some day?
The meaningful fines are in the books, but sadly it doesn't mean any regulator will ever have the spine to even attempt it.
Just look at the related news below this one: If Twitter's actions. or Google's CPU monitoring add-in in Chromium, or Meta's pay-or-consent scheme are not enough for the regulators to take decisive action, then what, in the ever-loving name of Nyarlathotep, is??
Don't forget all the scam ads that twitter and youtube get away with showing. If that had been TV, they'd have been given hell.
By the way, they are supposedly regulated by the ASA, so feel free to kindly inform them when yet another scam online advert is posted on a so-called "legitimate" site. At the same, presumably tell them what "the internet" is.
https://www.asa.org.uk/about-asa-and-cap/the-work-we-do/what-we-cover.html
Mind you, we all know how the ASA is funded....
As above, if a fine is ever levied the provider involved will immediately drop service to whatever bits of the EU it thinks will cause the most reaction. Is the Commission likely to buckle in the face of 30m outraged millennials ? Possibly. Or maybe it'll be just the boost needed by that well known EU-grown social network, er, no, I got nothing.
Also Musk claiming today on the back of this that EU offered him a deal to introduce some level of censorship, which he turned down. Hard to verify that either way of course, as everyone involved is paying for a blue tick.
That's what I thought initially, but then I remembered that X isn't exactly a money spinner because (a) Twitter never managed, (b) Musk couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag without competent assistance and (c) he has scared both the actually competent away, and the advertisers.
Thus, it's not like leaving Europe will made a big difference to the company's black hole labelled 'finance' so he may just do it. The guy is a bully so I suspect his very first move will be á la Zuckerberg: attempted blackmail, and unlike Zuck he's not going to notice a financial difference.
I suspect the larger barrier for Musk is then having to miss out on the adulation from his EU cult members.
Also Musk claiming today on the back of this that EU offered him a deal to introduce some level of censorship, which he turned down
This is such a transparent lie. He's clearly pandering to the right wing as has become his norm the last few years.
If he had been offered such a deal, he would have provided the evidence. It would have to be communicated to him in some way, so he could produce the incriminating email or recording of a call. But he can't, because he's just making it up.
If you’re visiting Xitter for the above, You’ve probably found the wrong source.
Reputable news outlets and government agencies that are still using Xitter, only make themselves look untrustworthy.
Musk mentioned recently that the EU did suggest that if they allowed censorship of 'X' posts then the other stuff would get quietly dropped.
This news is all over the place except, curiously enough, in the UK, US and (likely) Europe. Which leads me to reckon that the problem isn't X breaching this regulation or invading that privacy regulation, its Musk not toeing the line. For better or worse he is a free speech absolutist, something I respect but recognize that one of the costs of having free speech is that a lot of the speech will be unwelcome.
ElReg might perform a public service by explaining to younger readers what "D Notices" are (assuming they're allowed to give out such information, that is).
Twitler is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, a "free speech absolutist". He's a neo-Nazi.
A "free speech absolutist" would not ban users for the term "cisgender" - which Twitler has announced Xitter will do. And that's just one example, one of the first accounts Twitler banned was @elonjet, an account that tracked his personal mass greenhouse gas generator. (Now available on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@elonjet )
Drop the nonsense. He's a piece of garbage.
A "free speech absolutist" would not ban users for the term "cisgender" - which Twitler has announced Xitter will do.
Seems reasonable, especially if there's no context. It's always struck me as a redundant and clunky qualifier in the gender wars. Why the need to add qualifiers like cis-male, or trans-male when for gender recognition and equality, male of female should do?
But such is politics.
Meanwhile, it'll be interesting to see what comes of Musk's allegations that the EU attempted extortion or a shakedown. Agree to hire hundreds of censors to sit in Brussels and censor anything the EUrocracy doesn't like, and the EU will drop other investigations into X. If true, a rather clumsy way to do this when instead the EU should just have asked for 'voluntary' donations to a new Minitruth based in Brussels.
We're talking about humans, that's the context.
Since eels are of course all transgender, it would obviously not apply to you.
But in humans, given the attacks on trans rights, it's important right now for trans people to have recognition and visibility.
As a cisgender male human, I'm happy to help them with that.
As a transgender eel, you should stay out of it, and get back in your can.
@martinusher
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/07/13/did-the-european-union-just-try-to-illegally-censor-us-free-speech/
I was reading about that yesterday. I wonder if this is one of those conspiracy theory things that turns out true. Seems very plausible
@AC
"True conspiracy theories? Which ones?"
I wonder if there are just AC bots looking out for comments about conspiracies coming true just to post this stupidity or if there really is someone out there that unaware of recent US events.
Covid from the lab
Nonsensical and ineffective covid measures
Steele Dossier being fake
Hunter Biden laptop
Bidens mental health
Covid from the lab - 90% chance of natural origin. Obviously a conspiracy either way, because the fascist government of China was doing a coverup because they always do coverups.
Nonsensical and ineffective covid measures - Like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine? Yeah, those were idiotic. Or were you trying to suggest masks, social distancing, and vaccines don't work? Don't be that idiot.
Steele Dossier being fake - Obviously it was very much real. The pee pee tape will probably not turn up for at least 50 years, but it's probably real too, and Putin probably knows where it is.
Hunter Biden laptop - No chain of custody, there's no way of knowing how anything got on that laptop that we're not sure who dropped off at some random right-wing nutjob's computer store.
Bidens mental health - Perfectly normal for someone his age. And he's been mostly competent as president. Certainly much better than Pissbaby Von Shitzinpants.
Isn't that a climate denial website published by Willard Watts?
Media Bias/Fact Check: "Overall, we rate Watts Up with That a strong pseudoscience and conspiracy website based on promoting consistent human-influenced climate denialism propaganda and several failed fact checks." (https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/watts-up-with-that/)
Yup. Funded by the Heartland Institute that holds that smoking is not bad for you.
And who funds the Grantham Institute? And who funded the oil-barrel shaped former home of Phil Jones, of 'Climategate' fame? Famous for whining about why he should publish his data, when all those pesky statisticians wanted to do was find things wrong with it. And who funds the Met Office, who claim temperature records where no temperature sensors exist, and where around 70% of their stations are below WMO weather station siting criteria. But I'm sure they'll be along in a couple of weeks to claim July was the hottest temperature evah!
Your logical fallacies are showing. Again.
And your projection is showing, again. So you respond to comments about a climate science website with a stock snark that they're 'funded by Heartland Institute' that apparently deny smoking. One is trivially true, but the funding was teeny. And as far as I'm aware, nobody has tried to suggest any correlation between smoking* and Global Warming. So no logic to your reply. Then again, heya nlp! Your style shows again, as does your use of 'Willard Watts' rather than his actual name, Anthony Watts.
So I responded by showing there's far more funding promoting Global Warming, because there's far more money to be made from it. Like the $100bn a year the UN wants as part of COP. Or the $600m for 'renewables' that Biden threw into the trough as part of the 'Inflation Reduction Act'. I mentioned CRU, because they were funded by 'Big Oil', Shell from memory and were part of the 'Hockey Team' that claimed to be able to measure temperatures to fractions of a degree using wooden thermometers. Oh, and failed to notice the LIA & MWP, because those are rather inconvenient for CO2 dogma.
And then of course the good'ol Met Office. 70% of their weather stations are unsuitable for climatological work, per WMO standards with an accuracy of +/-2C. For reasons best left to money, they neglect to mention this when using those poor quality stations to claim temperature 'records', then link that to 'Global Warming' rather than poor siting. But jet exhausts are man-made, so it's kinda, sorta true, right? And of course the useful idiots at the Bbc amplify these stories because none of them, even their 'climate misinformation specialists' are climate scientists, and most are just arts grads.
*Actually there is, sort of. Much of the modern warming strangely correlates with the introduction of Clean Air Act(s).. Smog clears, insolation and albedo change, measured temperatures increase. But then most 'Global Warming' actually measure UHI (Urban Heat Island) effects, not anything to do with CO2.
Mann 2013, p. 72: "With the assistance of the Heartland Institute, Watts published a glossy, very official-looking report about the project... absent from that report, however, was any direct comparison showing what the surface temperature record looks like both with and without the sites that Watts deemed unworthy. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) went ahead and calculated it themselves, producing versions of the continental U.S. average temperature curve both with and without the records in question...Eliminating the "suspect" data made virtually no difference at all; in fact, the small bias that was found was of the opposite sign. The "corrected" record showed slightly more warming!"
That idiot doesn't do real research. He blathers nonsense.
There is ZERO need to rebuff idiots with anything but insults once they've been caught. And he has been caught.
A D notice, now known as a "Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice" is an official note to media requesting they do not publish something relating to national security (armed forces, spooks, etc).
If no-one is reporting the man-child's latest tantrum it's probably because its not interesting
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
