The EU Commission has found X, formally known as Twitter, in breach of its online content regulations, which could lead to a large fine and requirements for the site to change its operations.

After a seven-month investigation, X has been found in breach of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which has specific requirements for major players online to mitigate illegal online content and online harms to safety.

The investigation called out some of X’s policies, including its transparency around advertisements, and researcher’s access to data.

In particular, the EU found that X’s verified user policy, which gives some users a blue checkmark to indicate that they are verified, may unjustly impact a user’s ability to discern factual and opinionated posts. Under Elon Musk’s leadership, the blue tick mark became a paid subscription, which caused further scrutiny on how people verified themselves as experts, spokespeople, and public figures.

Companies that are deemed large platforms under the DSA are also required to provide the EU with a directory of the advertisements on their platform – something X failed to accomplish.

According to the EU, researchers were blocked from accessing X’s public data, which also goes against DSA requirements.

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“X has now the right of defence – but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes,” Thierry Breton, EU industry chief said.

If after the defence X is still found guilty, they could risk a fine of 6% of their global turnover.

X is not the only company being investigated for breaches of the DSA – TikTok, Meta, and AliExpress are all facing their own investigation.