An advisor to al-Qaida. One of the founders of Hezbollah. The head of an Iraqi militia group known for attacks on U.S. troops. And a top official with the Houthi rebels who recently lashed out at the “criminal Trump.”
These are among the U.S.-sanctioned terrorists who appear to have paid, premium accounts on Elon Musk's X, a new Tech Transparency Project investigation has found, raising questions about the platform's dealings with individuals who have been deemed a threat to U.S. national security.
Regulations enforced by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) prohibit U.S. companies from engaging in transactions with sanctioned individuals or entities unless they are licensed or otherwise authorized by the government. X’s policies explicitly state that its premium services are off limits to users subject to OFAC sanctions.
But TTP found premium blue checkmark accounts for multiple terrorists and others under OFAC-enforced sanctions. Some of these accounts even had an “ID verified” badge, meaning that X confirmed their identity after they submitted a government-issued ID and a selfie to the company. Several made use of revenue-generating features offered by X, including a button for tips.
The findings add to questions, first raised by TTP in February 2024, about X’s adherence to sanctions designed to protect U.S. national interests, even as the company maintains it has a “robust and secure” approach to its monetization features. X, formerly known as Twitter, once handed out blue checkmarks to notable figures for free. But after taking over the company, Musk turned the blue checkmark into a paid product and required users to purchase a premium subscription to obtain them.
X’s ongoing dealings with U.S.-sanctioned terrorists on its platform are all the more striking given that Musk, who has been leading the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), chastised the Treasury Department in February for lacking “basic controls” to track payments and ensure they don’t end up going to terrorist organizations and other wrongful recipients. Speaking at a televised Oval Office appearance with Trump, Musk said such controls are “in place in any company.”
X did not provide a comment on the findings when contacted by TTP.
X says it uses three companies for ID verification. Two of the companies, Au10tix and Stripe, declined to comment. A third company, Persona, did not respond to a request for comment.
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