LONDON — European Union regulators on Friday fined Elon Musk's social media platform 120 million euros ($140 million) for violations of the bloc's digital rules that they said could expose users to fraud and manipulation.
The European Commission has published its decision following the investigation it launched two years ago in X under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Services Act, also known as the DSA.
This is the first time the EU has taken a so-called non-compliance decision since the introduction of the DSA. This comprehensive set of rules requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting European users and removing harmful or illegal content and products from their sites under the threat of hefty fines.
The commission said it was punishing X, formerly known as Twitter, for three separate breaches of DSA transparency requirements. The decision could anger President Donald Trump, whose administration attacked digital rulescomplaining that Brussels was targeting American tech companies and vowing to retaliate.
The company did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
EU regulators had already outlined their allegations in mid-2024 when they published preliminary conclusions of its investigation into X's case.
Regulators say X has blue ticks broke the rules due to “deceptive design practices” and may expose users to fraud and manipulation.
Before Musk acquired X, when it was formerly known as Twitter, checkmarks reflected verification badges common on social media and were primarily reserved for celebrities, politicians and other influential accounts.
After he bought it in 2022the site began handing out badges to anyone willing to pay $8 a month for them.
Tool X does not provide meaningful verification of who is behind an account, “making it difficult for users to assess the authenticity of accounts and the content they interact with,” the Commission said in a statement.
X also failed to meet transparency requirements for its ad database, regulators said.
Platforms in the EU are required to provide a database of all digital advertising they run, with details such as who paid for it and the target audience, to help researchers identify scams, fake advertising and coordinate influence campaigns. But Database X, the Commission said, is ineffective due to design features and access barriers such as “excessive processing delays.”
Regulators also said X also erects “unnecessary barriers” to researchers trying to access public data, blocking research into the systemic risks facing European users.
“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, hiding information in advertising and shutting out researchers has no place on the EU internet. The DSA protects users,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU's executive vice president for technology sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a prepared statement.
