The European Commission announced Friday that it was fining Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, for the equivalent of $140 million, saying his company X had breached Europe’s Digital Services Act. The act, which took effect around the same time Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, is a kind of digital rulebook meant to crack down on illegal or potentially harmful content.
Vice President JD Vance, before the fine was even finalized, slammed the commission, claiming that it was targeting US companies.
“Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship,” Vance wrote on X Thursday. “The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.”
“Much appreciated,” Musk responded.
A key aspect of the alleged violation is how Musk handles account verification on his social media site. Musk’s X “allows users to subscribe to a tier of the platform that grants them a badge that had previously signified the person had been vetted and approved by X’s moderators,” the Washington Post reports. The European Commission said this system makes it “difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with.”
“This deception,” the body continued, “exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors.” The commission also said X didn’t provide a transparent advertising repository, as the Digital Services Act requires, and “fell short of an obligation to let researchers access and analyze its public data,” per The Post.
It doesn’t look like Musk will face similar issues in the US.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr claimed on X that, “Europe is fining a successful U.S. tech company for being a successful U.S. tech company.” Musk reposted. “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,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote, adding, “The days of censoring Americans online are over.” Musk endorsed the post with a one word reply: “Absolutely.”
While Musk and his supporters herald X as a bastion for free speech, his tenure in the past few years has been more complicated.
In December 2022, Musk suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists—from outlets like CNN, The New York Times, and WaPo—after Musk claimed reporters were endangering his safety by sharing information on where his private jets were using publicly available data. “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” Musk posted at the time.
According to self-reported data, from the date of Musk’s takeover to April 13, 2023, the social media site fully or partially complied with 98.8 percent of takedown requests submitted by governments. Turkey was responsible for half of all the takedown requests, followed by Germany at 26 percent and and India at 5 percent, as reported by Al Jazeera.
During the 12-month period before Musk took over the site, Twitter fully complied with 50 percent of these kinds of requests, and partially complied with 42 percent.
Since the EU commission announced the fine, Musk has been using his X page to amplify critiques of the commission’s decision. “Total war on free speech,” one post Musk reposted read. “It’s real simple,” Peter Imanuelsen, a well-known far-right voice in Sweden, began in another, “The EU fined X €120 million because this is where the mainstream media narrative gets exposed.” Musk quoted the post with the 100 emoji.
