Elon Musk’s X bans European Commission from making ads after €120m fine

X has blocked the European Commission from advertising on its platform, a move that comes days after it fined Elon Musk's site €120m (£105m) for its blue tick icons.

Nikita Bir, who holds a leadership position at a social networking site, accused the European Union (EU) regulator in an attempt to “take advantage” of an “exploit” in their advertising system to promote their post about the fine on Friday.

“You seem to think that the rules should not apply to your account,” he said. “Your ad account has been closed.”

A European Commission spokesman told BBC News that the Commission “always uses all social media platforms fairly.”

The X fine issued on Friday was the first under the EU Digital Services Act.

The EU regulator said the platform's blue tick system was “deceptive” because the firm “did not carry out meaningful vetting of users”.

“This deception exposes users to the risk of fraud, including impersonation fraud, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors,” He said.

He argued that X also does not provide transparency in its advertising or provide researchers with access to publicly available data.

The social media platform was given 60 days to respond to the Commission about concerns about its blue ticks or face further fines.

After the fine, Elon Musk wrote on his platform that the EU “should be abolished” and retweeted a response from another user X, who compared it to fascism.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) accused the EU regulator of attacks and censorship of American firmsadding: “The days of censoring Americans on the Internet are over.”

The dispute arose from Mr. Bier, who accused the Commission of activating a rarely used account “to take advantage of an exploit.”

He claimed he posted a link that itself misled users into thinking it was a video “to artificially increase reach.”

He said the “exploit” which had “never been so abused” had now been removed.

Ad accounts on X are used by companies to create and analyze paid advertising campaigns and place “promoted” posts on the site separately from the X user’s profile.

In response, a European Commission spokesman told BBC News that it was “simply using the tools that the platforms themselves provide to our corporate accounts.”

“We expect these tools to be fully compliant with the terms of the platforms themselves, as well as our legal framework,” it said.

And this is not the first time there has been disagreement between X and global regulators.

In 2024 Brazil's Supreme Court lifted the ban on X after it agreed to pay 28 million reais ($5.1 million; £3.8 million) and blocked accounts accused of spreading disinformation.

Last year, Australia's internet safety watchdog fined He received A$610,000 ($386,000; £317,360) for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into child abuse practices.