Researchers first warned X more than a year later, more than a year later, according to a new report, and it has been more than a year since Elon Musk's social media platform warned that it could violate US sanctions by accepting subscription account payments from terrorist organizations and other groups as Elon Musk's social media platform continues to accept such payments.
The report said X continued to receive payments from accounts that appear to be affiliated with Hezbollah leaders in Syria and Iraq, Houthi staff and militia leaders, according to the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit focused on accountability for large tech companies. A $8/month subscription offers users a blue checkmark. These include the more pronounced placement of X into the algorithm, the ability to edit posts, and the option to share longer videos.
After the Tech Transparency Project reported last year that X gave paid blue checkmarks to 28 accounts belonging to entities subject to US sanctions, social media companies stripped badges from several accounts and stopped others. However, within a month, some of these accounts have bought badges again and have been showing them ever since.
More than 200 accounts related to terrorist groups and other authorization groups have purchased a blue checkmark, according to the Tech Transparency project.
“They rely on premium services for long propaganda postings and amplifying their expanded videos,” said Katy Paul, the organization's director. “They are not only subscribed to Blue Check's infamous, they also subscribe to premium services.”
Musk, who played a role in the Trump administration as a special adviser to the president, recently criticized the Treasury Department, claiming that the agency has no “basic control” that prevents government agencies from tracking payments and going to terrorist groups. When he appeared in his oval office with President Trump in February, Musk said that controls to prevent payments to terrorist groups and fraudsters “at any company.”
X and the Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.
After Musk bought the X in 2022, he made major changes, including reviving hundreds of banned accounts and firing about 80% of his staff. He also removed the old verification system that relied on employees to verify the identity of prominent users and replaced it with subscriptions.
X's policy prohibits terrorist groups from purchasing blue checkmarks, and it is unclear how organizations and people are highlighted in the report, and circumvented those rules to pay for premium status. X no longer validates the user's identity before giving it a checkmark, so it is also possible that some of the accounts discovered by the Tech Transparency project belong to the spoof.
Still, some of these accounts are labeled “ID verification” and require sharing the format of selfies and identification.
Subhi Tufayli, founder of Hezbollah, who was the group's first executive director, appears to have an “ID verification” account with over 40,700 followers. Tufayli has been on the Ministry of Finance's sanctions list since 1995. The account, which was confirmed in October 2023, frequently shares 30-minute videos of his sermons.
Accounts containing a blue check for Yemen's Houthi Rebel Group once flourished in X, but after an initial report from the Tech Transparency Project, the company removed the badge last year.
The account under the name of Hussain Al-Ezzi, identified by the Technical Transparency Project as Deputy Minister of Houthis, asked Musk to allow the group to be verified again.
“We are in solidarity with the Yemeni brothers who removed the Blue Mark from their account, so we are calling on Elon Musk to revive it or at least revive the subscription,” the account said in a March 2024 post.
In the next few months, at least five senior Houthi staff appeared to be paying for the blue checkmark on X, and the latest Tech Transparency project report was found. The account has over 820,000 followers.
Some of the flagged accounts raised funds using X by using X's tip and subscription features to raise payments or by instructing users to send money to a cryptocurrency wallet.
“There is clear evidence of these groups' profits and financing through X,” Paul said. “They are approved for reasons and the fact that those who have such influence and power in the federal government are simultaneously profiting from these designated terrorist groups and individuals,” he said.
