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Elon Musk's social media company X was fined 120 million euros (C$193.3 million) by EU tech regulators on Friday for violating online content rules. This is the first sanction under the landmark legislation, which has once again drawn criticism from the US government.
While X did not respond to an email request for comment, Musk did. “Bulls” under the European Commission's post on the fine. He also reposted several messages criticizing the decision and wrote: “Freedom of speech is the basis [of] democracy. The only way to know what you're voting for.”
X's opponent TikTok saved the penalty with concessions.
Europe's crackdown on big tech companies, aimed at ensuring smaller rivals can compete and consumers have more choice, has been criticized by the Trump administration, which says it is singling out American companies and censoring Americans.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has said its laws do not target any nationality and that it is simply defending its digital and democratic standards, which generally serve as a guide for the rest of the world.
A fine is not censorship, says EU technical director
EU sanctions against X follow a two-year investigation under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to combat illegal or harmful content.
An EU investigation into ByteDance's social media app TikTok in May led to allegations that the company breached a DSA requirement to publish an advertising repository that allows researchers and users to spot fraudulent ads.
The European Commission's technical lead, Henna Virkkunen, said X's modest fine was proportionate and calculated taking into account the nature of the violations, their seriousness in terms of affected EU users and their duration.
“We are not here to impose the highest fines. We're here to make sure our digital laws are followed, and if you follow our rules you won't get a fine. And it’s that simple,” she told reporters.
“I think it's very important to emphasize that the DSA has nothing to do with censorship.”
She said upcoming decisions on companies accused of DSA violations are expected to take less time than the two years it took for the X case.
Facebook's parent company Meta was hit with a record €1.2 billion ($1.75 billion Canadian) fine by the European Union's top privacy regulator for handling user information and given five months to stop transferring user data to the United States.
EU shouldn't target US companies, says VP Vance
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr condemned the fine imposed by the EU.
“The $140 million allocated by the European Commission [US] The fine is not just an attack on @X, it is an attack on all American technology platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of online censorship of Americans are over,” Rubio wrote on X.
Carr said on X that the sanctions showed that Europe was fining a successful American technology company for being a successful American technology company.
In October, Meta and TikTok were accused of violating DSA transparency obligations, while Chinese online marketplace Temu was accused of violating rules to prevent the sale of illegal products.
X has 60 to 90 business days to take action to comply with the DSA, with the timing varying depending on the issue.
Ahead of the EU decision, US Vice President J.D. Vance said on X: “There are rumors that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for refusing to censor. The EU should support free speech, not attack American companies over trash.”
TikTok, which has vowed to make changes to its ad library to make it more transparent, called on regulators to apply the law equally and consistently across all platforms.
EU regulators said X's DSA violations included a deceptive blue tick design for verified accounts, a lack of transparency in its advertising repository and a failure to provide researchers with access to publicly available data.
The commission said its investigation into the distribution of illegal content on X and measures taken to combat information manipulation, as well as a separate investigation into TikTok's algorithmic development systems and child protection obligations, are ongoing.
DSA fines can be as high as six percent of a company's annual global revenue.
