EU Fines Elon Musk’s X €120 Million
The European Union has slapped Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, with a fine of €120 million, roughly translating to about $140 million. This marks the first penalty levied under a set of stringent new technology regulations introduced by Brussels.
The European Commission, which serves as the EU’s executive branch, criticized the platform for several reasons. They highlighted what they call the “deceptive design” of the blue check mark and pointed out issues like a lack of transparency in advertising repositories and the company’s failure to grant researchers access to public data.
This is the first instance in which Musk’s company has faced a fine due to contravening the EU’s digital services law, a series of strong regulations intended to tackle misinformation and illegal online content.
Hena Virkunen, executive vice president for technology sovereignty, security, and democracy at the European Commission, stated, “Deceiving users with blue ticks, hiding information in advertisements, or locking out researchers has no place online in the EU.” She emphasized the accountability of X for violating the rights of users and sidestepping liability.
The Trump administration has criticized the EU’s approach, labeling it as an infringement on free speech and calling for more lenient technology regulations from European authorities.
Vice President J.D. Vance remarked, “The EU should support free speech,” adding that American companies should not be targeted over what he described as trivial matters.
Musk himself reacted by saying that he was “very grateful.” While the billionaires associated with Tesla and SpaceX can appeal the ruling, they may face a lengthy legal dispute ahead.
X has 60 days to present a strategy for addressing the criticisms related to the blue check mark and 90 days to outline a plan for improving access to advertising repositories and the data for researchers. Should they fail to meet these requirements, they could incur further fines.
In April 2023, the platform began revising its verification program, which led to the removal of blue check marks from user profiles—an indicator that previously marked celebrities or public figures as verified.
Musk made alterations to the blue checkmark system, allowing anyone to purchase it, with the X used to symbolize those accounts that did pay for premium subscriptions.
The European Commission cautioned that this “deceptive design” could place users at risk of online fraud and identity theft.
Moreover, an investigation was announced regarding potential violations of antitrust laws by Meta in relation to its AI access to WhatsApp.
The Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act were adopted by European lawmakers in 2022, representing the EU’s most significant efforts thus far to hold social media platforms accountable for content moderation related to misinformation and illegal activities.
