More than a year after researchers first warned X that it was potentially violating U.S. sanctions by accepting payments for subscription accounts from terrorist organizations and other groups barred from doing business in the country, Elon Musk’s social media platform continues to accept such payments, according to a new report.
The report, by the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit focused on accountability for large technology companies, said X had continued to take payments from accounts that appeared to be affiliated with Hezbollah leaders, Houthi officials, and militia leaders in Syria and Iraq. The subscriptions, which cost $8 a month, offer users a blue check mark — once limited to notable users like celebrities — and come with perks. Those include more prominent placement in X’s algorithm, the ability to edit posts and the option to share longer videos.
After the Tech Transparency Project reported last year that X had granted paid blue check marks to 28 accounts belonging to entities subject to U.S. sanctions, the social media company stripped badges from some of the accounts and suspended others. But within a month, several of those accounts bought badges again — and have displayed them ever since.
More than 200 accounts linked to terrorist groups and other sanctioned groups have bought blue check marks, according to the Tech Transparency Project.
“They rely on the premium services for the amplification of long propaganda posts and extended videos,” said Katie Paul, the director of the organization. “They are not just subscribing for the blue check notoriety, they are subscribing for the premium services.”
Mr. Musk, who has taken on a role in the Trump administration as a special adviser to the president, recently criticized the Treasury Department, claiming the agency did not have “basic controls” in place to track payments and prevent them from going to terrorist groups. During a February appearance with President Trump in the Oval Office, Mr. Musk said controls to prevent payments to terrorist groups and fraudsters were “in place at any company.”