LONDON (AP) 鈥� European Union regulators on Friday fined X, Elon Musk鈥檚 social media platform, 120 million euros ($140 million) for breaches of the bloc鈥檚 digital regulations, in a move that risks rekindling tensions with Washington over free speech.
The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened into X under the 27-nation bloc鈥檚 Digital Services Act, also known as the DSA.
It’s the first time that the EU has issued a so-called non-compliance decision since rolling out the DSA. The sweeping rulebook requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting European users and cleaning up harmful or illegal content and products on their sites, under threat of hefty fines.
The Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said it was punishing X because of three different breaches of the DSA鈥檚 transparency requirements. The decision could rile President Donald Trump, whose administration has , complained that Brussels was targeting U.S. tech companies and vowed to retaliate.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on his X account that the Commission’s fine was akin to an attack on the American people. Musk later agreed with Rubio’s sentiment.
鈥淭he European Commission鈥檚 $140 million fine isn鈥檛 just an attack on @X, it鈥檚 an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,鈥� Rubio wrote. 鈥淭he days of censoring Americans online are over.鈥�
Vice President JD Vance, posting on X ahead of the decision, accused the Commission of seeking to fine X 鈥渇or not engaging in censorship.鈥�
鈥淭he EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,鈥� he wrote.
Officials denied the rules were intended to muzzle Big Tech companies. The Commission is 鈥渘ot targeting anyone, not targeting any company, not targeting any jurisdictions based on their color or their country of origin,鈥� spokesman Thomas Regnier told a regular briefing in Brussels. 鈥淎bsolutely not. This is based on a process, democratic process.鈥�
X did not respond immediately to an email request for comment.
EU regulators had already outlined their accusations in mid-2024 when they released of their investigation into X.
Regulators said X鈥檚 blue checkmarks because on 鈥渄eceptive design practices鈥� and could expose users to scams and manipulation.
Before Musk acquired X, when it was previously known as Twitter, the checkmarks mirrored verification badges common on social media and were largely reserved for celebrities, politicians and other influential accounts, such as , Pope Francis, and rapper Lil Nas X.
After he , the site started issuing the badges to anyone who wanted to pay $8 per month.
That means X does not meaningfully verify who’s behind the account, 鈥渕aking it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with,鈥� the Commission said in its announcement.
X also fell short of the transparency requirements for its ad database, regulators said.
Platforms in the EU are required to provide a database of all the digital advertisements they have carried, with details such as who paid for them and the intended audience, to help researches detect scams, fake ads and coordinated influence campaigns. But X’s database, the Commission said, is undermined by design features and access barriers such as “excessive delays in processing.鈥�
Regulators also said X also puts up 鈥渦nnecessary barriers鈥� for researchers trying to access public data, which stymies research into systemic risks that European users face.
鈥淒eceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU. The DSA protects users,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a prepared statement.
The Commission also wrapped up a separate DSA case Friday involving TikTok’s ad database after the video-sharing platform promised to make changes to ensure full transparency.
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AP Writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
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