More than a year yet The researchers first warned x The US sanctions are likely to be violated by accepting payments for subscription accounts from terrorist organizations and other groups that prevent the practice of business in the country, and the social media platform in Elon Musk continues to accept these payments, according to a new report.
The report before Technology transparency projectX X said that X continued to take payments from the accounts that appeared to be affiliated with Hezbollah leaders, Houthi officials, and militia leaders in Syria and Iraq. Subscriptions, which cost $ 8 per month, provide users with a blue examination sign – once limited to prominent users such as celebrities – and come with privileges. These include prominent places in the X algorithm, the ability to edit posts and the option to share long videos.
After informing the Technical Transparency Project last year that X had granted a paid blue check to 28 accounts related to entities subject to US sanctions, the social media company has stripped badges of some accounts and attached them. But within a month, many of these accounts bought the badges again – and have been displayed since then.
More than 200 accounts linked to terrorist groups and other approved groups have bought signs of blue examination, according to the technical transparency project.
“They depend on the distinguished services to amplify the long advertising publications and extended videos,” said Katie Paul, director of the organization. “They not only share the reputation of the blue examination, but they share the distinguished services.”
Mr. Musk, who took a role in the Trump administration as a special adviser to the president, recently criticized the Treasury, claiming that the agency had no “basic controls” to track payments and prevent them from going to terrorist groups. During February appearance With President Trump in the Oval Office, Mr. Musk said that the controls to prevent payments for terrorist groups and those who are fraudulent are “valid in any company.”
X and the Treasury did not respond to the suspension requests.
After Mr. Musk X bought in 2022, he made extensive changes, including returning hundreds of banned accounts and laying off about 80 percent of employees. It also got rid of the old verification system, which relied on employees to verify the identities of prominent users, and replace it with a subscription.
X policies prevent terrorist groups from buying blue examination signs, and it is not clear how organizations and people who were highlighted in the report cleared those rules to pay the price of their distinctive status. Since X no longer verifies user identities before granting signs of checks, it is also possible that some of the accounts discovered by the technical transparency project to a personality.
However, some of these accounts have been classified as “identifying the identifier”, which requires sharing a personal image and a form of identity.
Subhi Tuffayli, the founder of Hezbollah who was the first Secretary -General of the group, appears to have a “verified” account with more than 40,700 followers. Mr. Tufayli has been listed on the Treasury Sanctions list since 1995. The account, which was verified in October 2023, has 30 minutes of his sermons.
An account with a group of blue has flourished for the Houthi Rebel group from Yemen once on X, but the company removed the badge last year after the first report of the technical transparency project.
He asked the Hussein Al -Azousi project, which was defined by the technical transparency project as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Master, from Mr. Musk allowing the group to verify again.
The account said in a publication in March 2024: “I stand in solidarity with the Yemeni brothers who removed the blue mark from their accounts, and I invite Elon Musk to restore this, or at least return the contributions.”
In the following months, five of the senior Houthi officials appeared to pay for the signs of the blue check on X, the latest report of the technical transparency project. Accounts have more than 820,000 followers.
Some of the accounts that have been marked are used X to raise money, either using the features of transformation and subscription to X to order payments or by directing users to send money to an encrypted currency portfolio.
Ms. Paul said: “There is clear evidence of these groups that benefit from them and link money through X,” said Ms. Paul. “It is approved for some reason, and the fact that a person has such an effect and power in the federal government is at the same time benefiting from these specific terrorist groups and individuals is very anxious.”
