The European bloc has fined Elon Musk’s network 120 million euros for failing to comply with transparency obligations, in the first decision under the new law. The businessman and the US government criticize the decision and accuse censorship. The European Commission imposed a fine on Friday (12/05) on the social network
The move has already sparked backlash from X owner Elon Musk and the United States, which under Donald Trump has criticized European Union (EU) investigations into US-based networks.
According to the European Commission, violations committed by Musk’s company include the “misleading design” of its blue verification badge, the lack of transparency of its advertising repository and the lack of access to public data for researchers.
In detail, the European Commission, which acts as the executive arm of the EU, imposed a fine of 45 million euros for the infringement linked to the blue checkmark, 35 million for the advertising repository and 40 million for access to data by investigators.
On December 18, 2023, the Commission opened a formal procedure to assess whether the social network could have broken the law in areas related to the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures adopted to combat the manipulation of information, an investigation which remains ongoing.
This procedure also covered the use of misleading design, lack of advertising transparency and insufficient access to data by researchers. On these issues, the entity adopted preliminary conclusions on July 12, 2024 and a decision of non-compliance.
European sources explained that, to calculate the amount of the sanction, we take into account that it must be proportional to the offense and cannot exceed 6% of the overall annual turnover, specifying that the fine is not set as a percentage of this income.
Asked whether this amount did not seem dissuasive to them, community sources replied that “120 million costs more than simple compliance with the regulations”. “It is also a dissuasive element. If the regulations are respected, there is no need to pay, and this is the objective of the Commission,” the sources said.
The European Commission made it clear that it respected “with great diligence and scrupulousness” all the parties’ rights of defense, which is why it spent “considerable time providing the parties with access to the documents”.
The US company now has 60 working days to inform the Commission of the specific measures it plans to take to end non-compliance with the Digital Services Act regarding the misleading use of blue verification badges.
Musk and the White House criticize the fine
After the fine was announced, tycoon Elon Musk criticized the decision and the very existence of the European Union.
In a series of posts between Friday evening and Saturday morning, the multimillionaire criticized the EU, calling for the “abolition” of the bloc.
“Sovereignty must be returned to every country so that governments can better represent their people,” Musk wrote on his X account.
Musk’s attacks come a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also criticized the fine, calling it an “attack” on Washington “by foreign governments.”
“The $140 million fine imposed by the European Commission is not just an attack on X, it is an attack on all American technology platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” Rubio said in a post on
Before the evening fine was announced, US Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that “the EU should support free speech rather than attack American companies.”
Donald Trump’s administration often accuses the EU of “censorship” with its policies regulating social media and hate speech.
In a recent report laying out foreign policy guidelines for Trump’s second term, the White House warned that EU countries’ so-called censorship and migration policies would mean an “extinction of civilization” in Europe.
jps (EFE, ots)