Report: Terrorists continue to pay for check marks on X
The Tech Transparency Project report, a nonprofit that focuses on accountability of large technology companies said X continued to accept payments from accounts associated with Hezbollah officials, Houthi representatives, and militia leaders from Syria and Iraq. These subscriptions cost $8 per month and offer users the blue checkmark, once reserved for notable users such as celebrities. They also come with other perks. After the Tech Transparency Project revealed last year that X granted blue check marks for paid to 28 accounts of entities under U.S. sanction, the social media giant removed badges and suspended some accounts. 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 said that controls to prevent payments to terrorist groups and fraudsters were “in place at any company” during a February appearance with President Trump in the Oval Office. 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.”
X and the Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment.
After Mr. Musk bought X in 2022, he made vast changes, including reinstating hundreds of banned accounts and laying off about 80 percent of the staff. He also got rid of the old verification system, which relied on employees to verify prominent users’ identities, and replaced it with a subscription.
X’s policies forbid terrorist groups to buy blue check marks, and it is unclear how the organizations and people highlighted in the report skirted those rules to pay for their premium status. Because X no longer verifies the identities of users before granting check marks, it is also possible that some of the accounts discovered by the Tech Transparency Project belong to impersonators.
Still, some of those accounts were labeled “ID verified,” which requires sharing a selfie and a form of identification.
Subhi Tufayli, a founder of Hezbollah who was the group’s first secretary general, appears to have an “ID verified” account with more than 40,700 followers. Mr. Tufayli is on the Treasury Department sanctions list since 1995. The account, which was verified in October 2023, frequently shares 30-minute videos of his sermons.
Subhi Tufayli, a founder of Hezbollah who was the group’s first secretary general, appears to have an “I.D. verified” account.
Credit…
via Tech Transparency Project
An account with a blue check for the Houthi rebel group of Yemen once thrived on X, but the company removed the badge last year after the Tech Transparency Project’s first report.An account under the name of Hussain al-Ezzi, identified by the Tech Transparency Project as a deputy foreign minister for the Houthis, asked Mr. Musk to allow the group to be verified again.“I stand in solidarity with the Yemeni brothers who had the blue mark removed from their accounts, and I call on Elon Musk to reinstate it, or at least reinstate subscriptions,” the account said in a March 2024 post.
In the months that followed, at least five senior Houthi officials appeared to pay for blue check marks on X, the latest Tech Transparency Project report found. The accounts have more than 820,000 followers.
Some of the flagged accounts used X to raise funds, either by using X’s tipping and subscription features to solicit payments or by directing users to send money to a cryptocurrency wallet.
“There is clear evidence of these groups profiting and fund-raising through X,” Ms. Paul said. The accounts have more than 820,000 followers.
