The European Union is fining the social media company X $140 million for violating its Digital Services Act.
In a press release Thursday, the EU outlined what it considers X’s violations. They included:
- The deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark’
- The lack of transparency of its advertising repository
- The failure to provide access to public data for researchers
The Digital Services Act passed in 2022 with the goal of “combatting hate speech and misinformation online,” per the University of Chicago Law School. X was one of the first major cases the DSA announced it would investigate, and commissioners began looking into the company in 2023, shortly after the act was passed.
The European Union faults X’s blue checkmark model, arguing it makes it difficult to assess the authenticity of accounts and the content they interact with. X allows users to pay for “verified” status.
As for transparency and public data access, the EU believes X’s ad repository makes it more difficult than their regulation requires to detect scams, fake advertisements and hybrid threat campaigns. They also alleged that X had not created a public database to inform users on how manipulation occurs on social networking sites.
The EU gave X 60 days to change its blue checkmarks and 90 days to submit an action plan to change its advertising repository and researcher data access. If X does not comply, the EU will file “periodic penalty payments” to the U.S.-based company.
Elon Musk, the owner and CEO of X, responded to the fine on Friday afternoon. “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy fine not just on @X, but also on me personally, which is even more insane!” he wrote. “Therefore, it would seem appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action against me.”
Musk has also re-posted several statements criticizing the EU’s move, including one from Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini.
Salvini called the fine “an attack on freedom of expression” and a “weapon of censorship.”
U.S. politicians respond to the fine
Ahead of the EU’s official announcement, Vice President JD Vance posted on X, “Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship. The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.”
Then Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X, “The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on @X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
Musk also reposted Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s X post. “Why is Europe trying to censor X?” he wrote.
Lee continued, “Millions of Europeans are finally getting red-pilled by reading actual, unbiased news on X—instead of state-approved, legacy-media propagandaSo naturally, the European Commission is trying to kill X—because ‘the truth is dangerous.’”
Some in the U.S. have been asking the EU to clamp down on X for quite some time.
For example, in 2022, Hillary Clinton called on the EU to use the Digital Services Act in an X post. “For too long, tech platforms have amplified disinformation and extremism with no accountability. The EU is poised to do something about it. I urge our transatlantic allies to push the Digital Services Act across the finish line and bolster global democracy before it’s too late,” she said.
Just a week after Clinton’s X post, the New Yorker described the EU’s Digital Services Act as an appropriate “road map” for “putting the onus on social-media companies to monitor and remove harmful content, and hit them with big fines if they don’t.”