LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators on Friday fined Elon Musk's social media platform 120 million euros ($140 million).
The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it launched two years ago against X under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Services Act. Also known as the DSA, it is a comprehensive set of rules that requires platforms to take greater responsibility for protecting European users and removing harmful or illegal content and products on their websites, under threat of hefty fines.
The commission said it was penalizing X, formerly known as Twitter, for three separate violations of the DSA's transparency requirements. The decision could anger President Donald Trump, whose administration has cracked down on digital regulations from Brussels and has vowed to retaliate if American tech companies are punished.
The company did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
Regulators said the blue ticks from
According to regulators, X also failed to meet transparency requirements for its ad database.
Platforms in the EU are required to provide a database of all the digital ads they run, including who paid for them and who they are intended to target, to help research uncover fraud, fake ads and coordinated influence campaigns. But the database of
Regulators also said that X creates “unnecessary barriers” for researchers trying to access data.
“Deceiving users with blue ticks, obscuring information in ads and excluding researchers has no place on the internet in the EU. The DSA protects users,” said Henna Virkunnen, EU vice-president for technical sovereignty, security and democracy, in a prepared statement.
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