Anyone who is active in X (formerly Twitter) has known since its acquisition by Elon Musk in late 2022 that hate speech, misinformation and extremism are rampant on the platform. At this point, such toxic content is simply the price of admission. But a new report from the Technical Transparency Projecta nonprofit digital research organization, reveals that terrorist leaders have apparently paid for verification badges and premium features on the site, possibly violating US sanctions — as well as X's own policies.
TTP report detailing how Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of the Lebanon-based Islamic political party and militant group Hezbollah (designated a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries), has enjoyed verified status in X since November 2023. Naim Kassem, the Hezbollah's second in command, earned a blue checkmark that same month. Other individuals and media linked to Hezbollah that shared the group's propaganda — including a news feed called “Resistance Monitor” — also had badges, indicating paid subscriptions to the site.
A blue check costs $8 per month (for Premium features) or $16 per month (for the Premium+ tier). Either subscription type allows the user to edit posts, extend their character limit, and share longer videos. Those users also move their responses to the top of the feed—making them more visible on the site—and can apply to X's revenue sharing program, which pays creators for the engagement their content receives.
The presence of sanctioned groups such as terrorist organizations on social media is not new, says TTP director Katie Paul Rolling rock. But Musk's controversial decision to ditch traditional verification in favor of a paid service, he says, could put the company in the crosshairs of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the agency that enforces trade sanctions. (OFAC did not immediately return a request for comment.)
Before Musk, Paul says, “getting a verified checkmark was a free service. It wasn't something that gave you any sort of algorithmic boost. It was not paid. So there were no financial transactions.” Now, however, it appears that X has received money from — and may have redistributed some of it to — entities with which he is prohibited from doing business. These range from Hezbollah and Yemeni Houthi fighters to state media agencies and commercial enterprises, including Iran's Press TV and Russia's Tinkoff Bank, listed in OFAC's database as Specially Certain Nationals subject to U.S. sanctions against them of the two countries.
Paul notes that while the majority of accounts listed in the TTP report had blue badges, Press TV and Tinkoff Bank had the most expensive gold checks indicating a 'Verified Organisation'. (These originally cost $1,000 a month, but a “Basic” gold membership with fewer features can now be had for $200 a month.) After those findings were made public on Wednesday, X first moved to do away with the blue checks — then , a little later, the gold ones. At the time Press TV first reported that other Iranian state media outlets (two of which it directly owns) had lost their verified status, it still had a gold badge.
X responded to the report on the platform itself, claiming that some of the accounts listed may have had “visible signs of account verification” without receiving high-quality service. But that doesn't make much sense, according to Michael Clauw, TPP's director of communications. “The blue check itself is a service,” he says Rolling rockas X's policy states: “Premium: Includes all basic features plus a check mark.”
“If the accounts we listed weren't infringing or 'receiving services' why did X uncheck them?” Clauw asks. It is also unaffected by X's justification that several of these groups or individuals are not specifically named in OFAC's sanctions database, because even if an entity is not listed there, it may be owned or controlled by one that is, and reinforces this actor's harmful propaganda. “That's why companies are making compliance efforts on these issues,” he says.
The issue is just the latest example of how Musk has opened X to regulatory and financial risks by laying off most of its workforce — he estimated last year that he had laid off about 80 percent of employees within the first six months of its acquisition. “We know that the platform and the company have laid off a lot of trust and security experts,” says Paul. The lack of moderation led to a mass exodus of advertisers horrified by the prospect of their brand appearing next to hateful and extremist material — not to mention Musk's penchant for far-right conspiracy theories.
Ironically, the Starlink Internet satellite service, operated by Musk's SpaceX, ran an ad on Wednesday alongside a tweet from Hezbollah leader Nasrallah's verified account, which shared a video celebrating the group's rocket attacks in Israel. TTP shared a screenshot of these posts with Rolling rock. “Right now, Hassan Nasrallah is probably one of the most recognizable terrorist leaders in the world,” says Paul. “And specifically, it's not just that he had the blue checkmark account, but that he also had the verified ID badge,” for which X “requires a government ID and a selfie,” he says. “So does that mean there's a selfie of Hassan Nasrallah floating around somewhere in X? And, if not, does that suggest the “authenticated” program is just a name? Doesn't it actually work?'
Since December, X is under investigation by the European Commission of the EU for aspects of risk management and content supervision that may infringe the Union's law on digital services. “Much of this content, regardless of sanctions — Hezbollah content, for example — is a violation of the Digital Services Act,” says Paul. “There are some very strict provisions regarding terrorism. But it's also worth noting that many of the entities that have been sanctioned by the US are also sanctioned by the EU. So the EU can apply pressure differently for sanctions violations.”
Beyond these bureaucratic headaches, Paul observes, X failed to live up to his self-imposed rules. “They have their own policies that specifically state that sanctioned entities cannot use X's premium services,” he says. “But they don't seem to have a mechanism to enforce that. And we're not talking about free speech, we're talking about violations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the fact that this company receives, and, through revenue sharing, can even provide funding to designated entities and terrorist groups.”
Musk, for his part, tried to deflect blame with an accidental jab at transgender people. Responding to a Stephen King tweet that referred to a New York Times article in TTP's report, the trolling billionaire berated the author for continuing to call X “Twitter”, likening it to the offensive practice of “deadnaming”. Musk added: “Respect our transition,” along with a crying emoji.
It's the kind of loose punch that fans like, perhaps, but it's unlikely to pull X out of a heavy fine or settlement payment if the company is found responsible for the TTP activities described. Suddenly, the idea of charging users for a check mark to cover the site's costs might not seem so smart.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/twitter-terrorists-paid-checkmarks-us-sanctioned-groups-1234968339/
