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X owner Elon Musk: A golden catch from $200 a month

Photo: ALAIN JOCARD / AFP

Two high-ranking members of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, as well as several other organizations on the US government's sanctions list, have or had paid accounts on X, the former Twitter. This is what the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) claims in a report published on Wednesday.

In these cases, paid means that the people and organizations had or have blue or gold ticks in their profiles. A blue tick gives an account increased visibility in the network as well as the ability to publish longer texts and videos. This premium access costs eight dollars a month. Before Elon Musk took over and restructured Twitter, a blue tick was free and was primarily given to celebrities and journalists who could use it to mark their appearance on the network as official. A golden tick for “verified organizations” was only introduced under Musk. It currently costs from $200 a month; a few months ago it was at least $1,000.

Verified despite sanctions list

The TTP said it identified the accounts of 28 sanctioned individuals and organizations that had one of the two hooks. This included Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who joined the social network then known as Twitter in October 2021 and who most recently had more than 93,000 followers. According to the activists, the account was also “ID verified”. X usually offers this verification service to those users who provide a picture of their ID and a selfie. Nasrallah is also on the list of Specially Designated Nationals, as is his deputy Naim Kassem, who, according to the Tech Transparency Project, also had an X-profile with a blue tick. US citizens are prohibited from doing business with anyone on this list maintained by the US Treasury Department.

In addition to several other accounts that the project team assigns to Hezbollah and its environment, Iranian and Russian state media as well as organizations from the Houthi militia and a son of the Libyan dictator Mohammed Gaddafi, who was killed in 2011, are also said to have been present on X - all for a fee. In X's opinion, whether and how they are affected by the US government's sanctions is obviously a matter of interpretation. "Several of the account holders mentioned are not on the sanctions list by name, while others have visible ticks in their profile but do not receive services that are subject to sanctions," the company said, according to the BBC. The TTP argues that even those organizations not directly on the list themselves are among other entities subject to US sanctions.

X says it reviewed the TTP report and took action where necessary. Almost all of the blue and gold ticks on the accounts mentioned have disappeared.

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