A watchdog group's investigation found that terrorist group Hezbollah and other US-sanctioned entities have accounts with paid check marks on X, the Elon Musk-owned social network that still resides at the Twitter.com domain.
After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk started charging users for check marks that were previously intended to verify that an account was notable and authentic.
The Tech Transparency Project suggests that X may be violating US sanctions.
Some of the accounts were verified before Musk bought Twitter, but verification was a free service at the time.
Musk's X charges $1,000 a month for a Verified Organizations subscription and last month added a basic tier for $200 a month.
For individuals, the X Premium tiers that come with check marks cost $8 or $16 a month.
It's possible for US companies to receive a license from the government to engage in certain transactions with sanctioned entities, but it doesn't seem likely that X has such a license.
These include individuals and groups listed by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control as Specially Designated Nationals.
The account had a check mark when we first checked it earlier Wednesday, but it has since been removed.
This Cyber News was published on www.wired.com. Publication date: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 23:43:04 +0000