Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/DUBLIN: Twitter’s lead European Union privacy regulator on Tuesday expressed concerns that the Elon Musk-owned American entity launched its “blue tick” subscription service in Europe without consulting her office despite a promise to do so.
Twitter, which did not respond immediately to a request for comment, has recently launched the blue tick service in several European countries, offering the kind of blue tick previously free for verified accounts of public figures to anyone willing to pay. It was first released in the United States last year.
Twitter’s European headquarters
Since Twitter’s European headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon, who is Twitter’s lead EU regulator, said the service raised privacy concerns, including account verification to prevent users from posing as public figures.
Dixon stated in a recent interview that we are a little more worried this week now that we see that the blue tick monthly subscription is rolling out here in EU countries having been convinced that it wasn’t going to roll out in the EU and not before there have been discussions with our office. She said, describing consultation before a product launch as “best practice” that while no formal investigation has been launched “we’re at a heightened state of contact with Twitter.
Dixon expressed concern in November about the impact of sharp job cuts on Twitter’s ability to meet privacy commitments in the aftermath of billionaire Musk’s take over the previous month. Twitter now has a “very strong” data protection office, according to her. Dixon went on to say that, aside from the data protection office, there are other forces at work. And we need to learn a little more about those.
