The European Union said Friday that blue checkmarks from Elon Musk’s X are deceptive and that the online platform falls short on transparency and accountability requirements, the first charges against a tech company since the bloc’s new social media regulations took effect.

The European Union said Friday that blue checkmarks from Elon Musk's X are deceptive and that the online platform falls short on transparency and accountability requirements, the first charges against a tech company since the bloc's new social media regulations took effect.

Elon Musk has accused the European Commission of offering X an “illegal secret deal if we quietly censored speech” after his platform became the first to fall foul of the European Union’s (EU) Digital Services Act.

European Union says social media site X's blue checks are deceptive and transparency falls short under digital rules

Regulators took aim at X's blue checks, saying they constitute 'dark patterns' that are not in line with industry best practice and can be used by malicious actors to deceive users

Musk wrote on the site, "The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us."

The European Commission found X in violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) due to deceptive blue checkmarks and non-compliance with ad transparency requirements.